The Prank by Prongslet
by GeniusReader
Summary: AU - 4th year, What if Harry decides to find his family history in summer after his 3rd year?, how will this impact the future?, where does Sirius and Remus stands in all this? Eventually a HP x DG story...good AD, MW Bashing, Grey but light sided harry, powerful harry, Animagus harry, smart harry... add quidditch to this and you get the biggest prank played by Harry Potter
1. The Beginning of Goblin Friend

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JKR does. If the plot of this story resembles to that of some other story on the fanfiction, please forgive me as it may be because of the influence that story has on my writing.**

**Note: This is Harry x Daphne Greengrass story. I really don't like the Harry x Ginny pairing as Ginny is too much fan girl and not the real women Harry should spend his life with. Initially for many years Hermione was the one who supported Harry in his tough time. When Harry needed their support most, from Christmas in the OOTP till beginning of HBP, the behavior of younger Weasley children have lot to answer for. Hence this is my attempt to correct the plot made by JKR. It is the story of Harry Potter, who is intelligent, methodical, smart, powerful, brave, cunning and ambitious.**

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Goblin Friend

Harry Potter sat on the tattered bed in smallest bedroom of number 4, Private Drive wistfully thinking about his godfather – Sirius Black. For glorious half hour in the tunnel leading to Shrieking Shack, Sirius had promised to take Harry away from his personal hell i.e. Dursley family. But for the unfortunate coincidence of full moon meaning Prof. Lupin turning to a werewolf allowing the traitor Peter Pettigrew to escape and the idiot of a man ( who is also known as Minister of Magic - Cornelius Fudge ) refusing to acknowledge that Sirius is innocent, Harry was stuck back with his aunt and her family.

Not that this was a bad summer by any means, Harry mused. He had told uncle Vernon that Sirius Black – a wanted criminal in both magical and muggle world – was his godfather and that he likes to keep in touch with Harry. Harry had showed him the letter from Sirius granting him permissions to visit the village of Hogsmeade, just to stress the point. So Harry promised his uncle that he will do some household chores that he likes but won't be bullied by them. This had the desired effect and his family had mostly kept to themselves leaving Harry lot of time to think.

Now that he had time to think about his encounter with his godfather, he had quite a few unanswered questions. One major question he had was who really was James Potter? "Come to think about it, I really don't know anything about my family" Harry thought to himself. "I must be the only person in wizarding world not knowing anything about my family" he continued mulling. Thinking about what he knows about his family leads him to the photo album given to him by Hagrid at the end of first year and invisibility clock that was from his father; Prof. Dumbledore had told him. All everybody had ever mentioned about them to him was that he looks exactly like his father but the eyes are exactly like his mothers. There was also a mention from Prof. McGonagall and Sirius that his father was a genius in Quidditch.

This was not good enough for him and thus he decides to find out more about his family and starts writing letter to Prof. Lupin and his best female friend a.k.a. Hermione Granger. He knew, Hermione will have something for him as always and Prof. Lupin was his last link to his father – albeit temporarily. But something stops him from completing the letters. A small voice inside his head asks "why to ask someone, huh? This is about your family right? Isn't it your personal treasure? Why not you find out this information yourself? There are books about you; you know Hermione had mentioned that in first train ride to Hogwarts. You can read those books yourself instead of asking her like little lazy boy you are".

"Wow, this hurts" Harry thought. But he knew that the small voice – his mind – was right. He had always depended on Hermione for any information he needed. She was the brains behind his adventures. He also knew to trust his instincts – a talent developed after fighting continuous battles in his three years at Hogwarts. So he decides to visit the Diagon Ally.

Finally reaching this decision, he checks the time to find that he was running late for preparing the dinner. He hurriedly goes to kitchen and starts preparing dinner, while waiting for others to show. After making simple dinner as Dudley was on so called diet, his uncle rudely informs him that they would be visiting Aunt Marge in 2 days' time at her Stratford house.

"Well this is really nice" Harry starts thinking. But before continuing daydreaming about his good fortune, he had a job on his hands. So, he asks his uncle, if they could drop him off in London, so he can meet his godfather and tell him that he is alright in person and can reassure him about his situation with them. He also reassures his uncle that he will come back home after spending 2 days in London. After much grumbling and some not so innocent threats from Harry, uncle Vernon agrees to take him to London, but warns him that if anything happens to him while he is with his lot then he is not responsible and that his godfather should not threaten his family at any case.

Next morning Harry starts the day early and packs his bag for London trip. He takes his important items, such as invisibility cloak, marauder's map and his beloved phoenix feather wand. He also packs one extra set of cloths. He finds that his money purse is almost empty and the visit to Gringotts is necessary to begin the journey in Diagon ally. Trip to London is very uneventful as all three Dursleys were afraid of him. They drop him on the outskirts of London and hurriedly depart for Stratford.

Harry takes the cab to go to muggle restaurant near Diagon ally entrance. He takes the early brunch in that restaurant and enters the Leaky Cauldron under his invisibility cloak. Going to back yard of the bar, he taps the brick pattern and gains entry in the Diagon ally. After repacking his invisibility cloak, he quickly makes his way to wizarding bank and shudders at the sight of forbidding looking goblins guarding the front doors of bank. He joins the smallest queue in the open hallway and after 5 minutes gets the goblin teller.

"Good morning, dear goblin" Harry greets. "I want to withdraw some money from my account and here is my key" Harry tells the goblin while passing on his Gringotts vault key.

The goblin – Longclaw – looks at him in surprise and checks his key. After satisfying about the key, he directs Harry to Griphook to visit the vault. Harry greets Griphook as well and then they visit Harrys vault after very thrilling cart ride. Looking at the large unknown amount of galleons present in his vault, Harry wonders if goblins have some record of his account vault. On reaching the lobby, Harry thanks Griphook before asking him about the account statement. Griphook gives him a hard look before telling him to visit Potter Family account manager and directs him to senior account manager Sharpclaw. Harry thanks Griphook and then decides to visit Sharpclaw.

Feeling weary about the impending meeting, he slowly reaches the door directed by Griphook and politely knocks. After what seems like eternity to him but actually after only 1 minute, Sharpclaw allows Harry to enter his room. Harry slowly enters the room and bows to Sharpclaw while greeting him "Good Morning Senior Leader Sharpclaw, Thanks for arranging this meeting on such a short notice".

Now for his part, Sharpclaw was surprised. He had expected another arrogant human brat who does not know its place and manner. What he definitely not expected was a scrawny, malnourished and polite kid. "He is different" Sharpclaw thought "and maybe very useful in the future". One look at the boy and he was sure that the kid does not know about his inheritance. This was odd and hence he decided to make a final opinion about the teenager after his learning about his inheritance. "Because he is not aware, he is polite" Sharpclaw mused with a grim thought. Collecting himself together he greets the Potter Heir in typical goblin manner, "Good morning to you as well Mr. Potter. I hope you are aware that you are two years late for this meeting. I was beginning to wonder if you will ever show your face to me".

Harry, who was observing the old and scarred goblin with little fear, was not expecting this remark. So he quickly decided that telling the truth is best option and explains to Sharpclaw that there must be some mistake as he never knew about any such scheduled meeting. Sharpclaw was surprised by this and asks few more questions about why he did not receive any letters sent to him by Gringotts. Harry tries to explain the situation but starts' wondering if he should keep quiet as the goblin in front of him was getting more and more angrier after each answer given by him. Sharpclaw after concluding that Harry had indeed no idea about any Gringotts letter finally asks him if he is ready to do the pending business with Gringotts today. Harry relived that he was not at the end of anger of goblin quickly agrees to it.

Sharpclaw produces a parchment and a sharp goblin made blade from his drawer and ask Harry to drop his blood on the parchment. Harry wearily takes the blade and cuts his finger to drop 7 droplets of blood on the parchment. Sharpclaw states that this is inheritance ritual and will identify him by his blood. After this he starts chanting in Gobbledygook and finally the writing appears on the parchment. After finishing the ritual, Sharpclaw looks at the parchment and passes it to Harry feeling elated and very surprised at some discoveries. Harry reads it and looks at goblin with his mouth hanging open because he could not believe what is written on it.

_**Blood based Inheritance Ritual Report**_

_**Name: Harry James Potter**_

_**Father: James Charlus Potter (27 March, 1960 – 31 October, 1981)**_

_**Mother: Lily Beatrix Potter nee Evans (30 January, 1960 – 31 October, 1981)**_

_**Heir to Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter (last in the line of succession)**_

_**Heir to Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black**_

_**Potter Family Account Summary**_

_**Vaults:**_

_**Potter Trust Vault of Mr. Harry Potter: 200,000 Galleons**_

_**Potter Family Vault: 6, 000,000,000 Galleons, 500 Sickles, and 20 Knuts**_

_**Shares:**_

_**51% shares in Wizarding Wireless Network**_

_**40 % shares in Daily Prophet**_

_**30 % shares in The Quibbler**_

_**60 % shares in Nimbus Racing Broom Company**_

_**10 % shares in Zonkos**_

_**Property:**_

_**Cottage in Godric Hollow (declared as National Heritage by Ministry of Magic in 1981)**_

_**Potter Manor in Wales (Destroyed in 1978)**_

_**Farm Land in Yorkshire**_

_**Prongs Cottage in south France**_

_**Flower Cottage in Greece along with the island on which it holds**_

_**Number of family heirlooms, jewelry, books and other valuables in Potter Family Vault**_

Harry was stunned to know that he was rich. No scratch that, he thought. He was filthy rich. Finally after 5 minutes of reading and rereading the parchment Harry could look at the goblin sitting patiently in front of him, but was quickly losing his patience. He immediately offered apologies for his behavior. Then asks for the reason why Sharpclaw wanted to meet him on his 11th birthday. Sharpclaw recognizing the sincerity in Harry words, waves of the apology and tells him the reason of the meeting scheduled. "Mr. Potter" Sharpclaw starts only to be interrupted by Harry telling him to call just Harry as "Mr. Potter" makes me feel old.

Sharpclaw accepting this tells him to call as Sharpclaw only and continues "well Harry, in normal case you cannot take the lordship of your house unless previous lord gives it to you and the heir is of age. But in case if the heir is also last leaving descendant then he can accept the lordship on his 11th birthday. Since your family vault is in death lockdown – nobody can access it till next lord gives permission – we were unable to use your funds. As you can clearly see, your family has significant fortune and Gringotts will like to use these funds so we both can gain out of it. That is why we requested the meeting with you, so you can give us the permission to use your funds for investment purpose."

"So if I take up the lordship then I will be able to access the Potter Family vault, right?" Harry asked.

"No Harry" Sharpclaw stated, "you can get complete access to you vault only if you're of age. Right now if you were to take the lordship, you can visit your family vault, sort out few things in it, read some books inside the vault but cannot take anything out of the vault. But in this case goblins can use your funds for their investment purpose and any profit gained would be shared on the basis of standard policy of Gringotts."

Disappointed by this law, Harry asks Sharpclaw to give him some time to consider what he had learned and then come to conclusion. Sharpclaw accepts this thinking that Harry will most likely accept the Lordship but just wants some time to think about and takes Harry to an unused conference room and tells him that he can use this room for as long as he wants and once he is ready with decision then he can come over to his office.

Sitting inside the conference room of Gringotts, Harry starts thinking furiously about what action he should take. He half-heartedly thought about asking for the advice from Mr. Weasley or from Prof. Lupin, but discards it immediately. He was sure that the family vault will have the large and correct information about his Potter Family. This was the purpose of his visit in first place. "So what I want is access to my books" he thought. "That means all I have to do is to make a deal with goblins which will allow me such access" he decided.

Coming to this decision he starts thinking about the deal he wants to make with Goblins. He knew that goblins were ruthless about the gold and only parting of some gold will open the doors of family vault to him. Concluding this he starts thinking about how to loose minimum amount gold but still the access is given to him. After long and hard thinking, he goes back to meet Sharpclaw with a firm decision made in his mind.

He tells Sharpclaw that he can make a deal with Gringotts which will satisfy both goblins and Harry simultaneously. Sharpclaw asks him about the deal and after listening to the conditions asks Harry to wait as he wants to discuss this with his peers. Then he goes out of the room for 30 minutes and comes back with Gringotts Director Lord Ragnok. He introduces Harry to Lord Ragnok as "Harry I will like you to meet the Director of Gringotts London branch and Leader of goblin nation Lord Ragnok".

Harry politely accepts the greeting murmuring his own as he was stunned to meet the most feared goblin in British wizarding community. Ragnok looks surprised that a wizard could show some respect to goblins, decides to ask Harry about the deal, "Now Mr. Potter, Sharpclaw here tells me that you have a proposal for us regarding the funds available in Potter family vault. Can you explain me your terms?"

Harry deciding to consider this as the friendly behavior, starts explaining the deal to Ragnok and Sharpclaw. "As you know, honorable lord Ragnok, my family account holds significant amount of gold. As I understand this, unless I accept the lordship and grant you permission to access my vault, you cannot use these funds. But in return I cannot do any transaction from family vault. This is not fair in terms of my opinion. So I have following deal which if agreed between two of us, then we both can gain the profit." Harry said.

"My terms are actually quite simple. What I propose is to divide the gold in my account in three equal parts for next 25 years. First part will be used by Gringotts for any deals they want to make. The profit generated on this money would be shared between two of us. 95% of this profit will be yours keep and 5% will go to a new account that I am starting under the name of "James and Lily Potter Foundation"" Harry explained the first part of his deal.

Then he starts explaining the second part, "The second part would be accessible to me and I can use this fund for any of my projects. Whatever the profit that this part will generate will be shared in similar manner as in 95% to me and 5% to Foundation. The last part would be kept as it is and Gringotts can use up to 50% of this money. As for the remaining 50 % money, I can use this part in the future once I complete 20 years. The profit earned on this part will be shared by standard Gringotts law."

Now he explains the most complicated part of the deal, "In addition to this as I will the lordship, goblins will make a copy of all the Books present in my family vault and will sell them to me and me only for an appropriate price. ".

"Mr. Potter, why are you so much in need of the books if I may ask you" Ragnok enquired. As far as Ragnok was concerned he already like the young wizard and was ready to do the business with him as Harry Potter was giving him free access to almost 2 billion Galleons and Gringotts can keep profit generated on this money. They will also have access to further 1 billion Galleons which would be in shared use. This was excellent deal for Ragnok as he could see the various possibilities to invest so much of gold. He was just pushing the young man so that he would be absolutely sure about Harry's intentions.

Harry sighed and mentally chided himself for thinking he can fool the goblins in first place. Mustering his courage, he told the two goblins his reasons. "You see, I was raised by my muggle relatives. They don't like magic and hence don't discuss my wizarding family with me. All my life in the wizarding world I have heard about how great and gifted my parents were but at no point anybody will tell me anything more about them. The reason I was in the bank today was to withdraw some money so that I could then buy some books about my family history. Now I have the chance to explore my family vault, which will surely contain most authenticate information about my family, I would really like to take this opportunity and gain more knowledge about my family. " Harry finished his reasoning.

The two senior goblins consider the young wizard in front of them and acknowledged that he is very intelligent man. He is also a warrior who understands how to fight the war and will go to all the way in his efforts to win the war. They liked the attitude the young wizard was showing about getting access to family books by thinking and offering a solution that could be acceptable to both the parties. They also recognized the pain present in him and were reassured that he could understand the pain caused by wars and conflicts. This boosted the good opinion of goblins about him. Ragnok could also detect that Harry would be significant political force in the future as Lord Potter and most likely Lord Black. After some brief discussion in Gobbledygook, they come to conclusion to accept the deal.

Ragnok stated his decision to accept the deal to Harry but added that they have their own clause to add. Harry will have to appoint at least one goblin as his account manager for the money handled in 2nd part i.e. Harrys part. Harry accepted this after adding that the chosen goblin cannot work for any other wizard or witch as their account manager without his permission although he can partake in other Gringotts work which does not violate the clauses in direct or indirect manner. Both goblins accepted this and told Harry to wait so they can draw the official contract. Sharpclaw also asked him if he has any particular goblin in mind for this purpose. After deciding to ignore Griphook, Harry tells him no but he would like to know about the teller goblin he met in the morning. Sharpclaw promised to look into it and went to make final preparation for the signing of contract.

While Sharpclaw was busy arranging the contract, Ragnok asked Harry if he has any other business with Gringotts. Harry told him that he would like to account statement of his trust vault and if Gringotts have any method from which Harry could directly take money out as and when required. Ragnok immediately sends one goblin to get the account statement of trust vault and another to get bottomless purse. He explains to Harry that a bottomless purse would be directly connected to his vault and he can set an access code to it. Once done, then only he can use it to withdraw any desirable amount of money from his account as long as the gold is present in the vault. Harry happily nodded at this and thanked the Director for such a wonderful gift.

Harry then asks if Ragnok knows anything about Potter Manner before it was destroyed. Ragnok tells him that he had only heard the fabled tales about it from other wizards but does not know anything about it from personal experience. Harry thanks him for his information and then asks if goblins can build a castle such as Hogwarts if money is available. Ragnok considers him for a moment before answering it carefully that indeed goblins are capable of such accomplishments, but they will do it only for goblin friends and not to any other wizards. Harry accepts the answer and then asks about how they will proceed from here.

However, before director could answer, Sharpclaw enters the room with another goblin – the teller whom Harry had met in the morning – and introduces him to Harry as "Hello Harry, I will like to introduce you to my son Longclaw as it seems you have already been accustomed with each other". After introductions and greetings were exchanged, Ragnok explains the schedule to Harry.

Firstly, they will perform a ritual in which Harry will become the Lord Potter. Then second ritual would be performed to make Lord Harry James Potter as temporary goblin friend. Ragnok explains this as a must need for them to sign the proposed contract with Harry. After this Harry will give his permissions to goblins to use up to 6 billion Galleons from Potter family vault. Then Gringotts will set up three new accounts…one for the James and Lily Potter Foundation, one for Lord Potter and last under the name of Friends of Lord Potter. Once the accounts are ready then the goblin friend Lord Harry Potter and Lord Ragnok will sign the contract with accepted clauses. Finally Harry will sign a contract with Longclaw so he can take the responsibility of account manager of Lord Potter account, Foundation Account and Potter trust vault account.

Once all was set, Ragnok hands Harry two boxes, one containing Lordship ring for Potters and other containing heir ring for the Blacks. Harry looks at Ragnok quizzically, who answers the unspoken question by telling him to put the rings on his ring finger of wand hand. Harry shrugs and then places the Potter ring first. Immediately the Potter Griffin appears and binds him. For other occupants of room it was a shock. To them it seemed that the griffin was searching for something. Then as suddenly as he appears, the griffin disappears after giving out a fierce cry. Meanwhile for Harry the experience was unique. He felt content, protected. As if he is with his family and is safe from any looming dangers. The interaction with griffin was interesting but still he felt like the griffin was only looking for the threats. For the first time in his life he knew he was safe with his family. He looks at the goblins and gives them a reassuring smile and then proceeds to place the Black ring.

Now the Black family totem, Snake appears. He also take a look at Harry before hissing "_Must remove it…must remove it_".

Stunned Harry looks at the snake and asks in parseltongue without understanding why, "_What must be removed_?"

"_Oh a speaker…how wonderful_" snake hissed again.

"_Who are you and again what must be removed_?" now Harry asks pleadingly.

"_You are burdened with dark magic youngling, it must be removed before you reaches your full potential_" snake hissed back to Harry.

"_How can I remove, what is it_" Harry asks again.

"Y_ou must find your own path child…but do not fear we will protect you…that is what the family is for_" with that said snake also disappeared.

Not trusting his voice completely, Harry explains the goblins that he spoke with the snake as he is a parseltongue. He also indicates that he is ready to finish the task they all started in first place. Without further ado, everybody sets to finish the tasks. One after other the contracts are signed and finally they all were done.

Then Ragnok indicates that he has some more business with Harry and taking the hint Harry requests that Sharpclaw to visit the Potter Family vault and lists the available books for him. He asks Longclaw to get the list of artifacts and other material present in the vault.

Once they are gone, he tells Ragnok explains him that there are some illegal transactions happened with his trust vault and that they will like to have his audience soon. Harry agrees to this and told the director that he will meet them once his all other tasks were finished.

He then explains Ragnok about the conversation he had with the Black family totem. Ragnok offers him the goblin healer service as Harry being friend of goblins can avail it. Harry immediately accepts it and Ragnok asks for their lead healer Tsoshi. With all his work done, Ragnok takes his leave and asks Harry to rest for the day and then come back for a visit with Sharpclaw and Tsoshi on next day as he would be keeping appropriate messages for Sharpclaw and Tsoshi. Harry accepts the proposition and goes out of Leaky Cauldron in muggle London to eat some food and to rest for the day.

**Author Note: that is the end of first chapter guys. Please read and review. Yesterday I put up the partially finished chapter by mistake. Next chapter will involve further dealings between Harry and Goblins. As this is my first story, please bear with me as I get the hang of writing stories. Whenever I will finish the chapter, I will upload it. I have basic plot ready for 4****th**** year in Hogwarts (up to 15 Chapters). I haven't started the actual writing of second chapter yet. Hopefully I will do that over the weekend. Till then, bye.**


	2. Learning His Inheritance

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JKR does. This is a work of fiction based on this book series.**

**AN: Read and Review. Thanks for your response and support.**

**Chapter 2: Learning His Inheritance**

After a good night's sleep, Harry Potter walks into Gringotts next day with more than little anxiety. Even after the good sleep, he had yet to grasp his situation. So when he meets Sharpclaw and follows him inside Gringotts, he was expecting another long day. Once settled in the office of Sharpclaw, Harry asks him about the schedule for the day. Sharpclaw states that, first they will meet the Healer Tsoshi to check on his health, then while she will decide the about his treatment, they can finish the other business that Gringotts wants to do with him. Harry agrees to the plan and asks the goblin to lead the way.

Sharpclaw then takes him to the other end of bank and after taking a short cart ride they reach the goblin healing facility. Harry was amazed to see the advanced facility that was available to the goblins. Healer Tsoshi was with them immediately and told him that the goblin healers want to do his complete checkup so that they get the correct idea about his treatment. Harry readily agrees with the plan and follow's the healer inside the facility. Harry greets the goblins in a team awaiting him with short bow and greetings. They ask him to sleep on a bed so they could start the checkup procedure. Once he was settled, they start chanting in very strange language which he couldn't understood. The healers keep their checkup for 2 very long hours for Harry before they release him so he could do the next part of business with Gringotts.

After Sharpclaw and Harry were settled back in his office, Sharpclaw took out a long, heavy book which contained the transaction records of his trust vault. Then Sharpclaw told Harry that there were about 25 transactions per year from his trust vault account. Harry immediately told him that he did not authorize so many transactions as he normally fills his money pouch only once every year. Then they start going over the records and Harry understood that Dursleys were getting paid 500 Galleons per month to keep him. This amount was given to them at the beginning of every quarter.

He also discovered that Mrs. Weasley had taken some money out of his account every month and at the beginning of every school year there were large amount of money withdrawn. Sharpclaw suggested that these transactions might be for the Weasley children school funds and after quick calculation he confirmed that Weasley family had taken about half of their school fees from Harrys account.

He then wondered aloud about how Mrs. Weasley could access his account when he was not aware about being wizard at all. Then Sharpclaw told him about second nasty piece of business. It was a marriage contract between him and Ginny Weasley, which allowed access to Ginny or her magical guardian to his trust account till they are married together. This contract was signed by Prof. Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley as the magical guardians' of bride and groom concerned in the contract.

Recognizing Harrys shock look, Sharpclaw informs him with very typical predatory smile on his face that this contract is no more valid as Harry had informed them about the forgery of this document in capacity of Lord Potter. Harry recognizing the hint, then immediately informs the Gringotts in written document about the forgery document in his account. Sharpclaw then informs him further that the goblins believe the signature of Prof. Dumbledore on contract may also be forged. Harry then asks Sharpclaw to provide him the copy of the document so he could use it in the future.

Harry further instructed him to keep only necessary amount in his trust vault. This amount being the school funds required for remaining Weasley children till their NEWT year. He also asked the goblins to transfer remaining amount in his new vault which was setup yesterday. Harry further instructed the goblins to not press the charges on either party involved in the forgery as he wanted to confirm their final plans and level of involvement of all concerned family members in this. Sharpclaw reluctantly agrees to this but warns Harry if they try to take anything more, Gringotts will protect their client and their own honor and reputation.

The business with Sharpclaw was long and time consuming. So they temporarily breaks it to accommodate the lunch before going back to meet the healers. Once he had taken his lunch, he went back to meet the healer Tsoshi and was surprised to found Lord Ragnok with the group. Once everybody was seated, Ragnok informs Harry that his medical examination has thrown up some surprises. Then Tsoshi informs him that they have detected number of blocks on his magical ability. She also informs him that they believe that he is a Horcrux.

When Harry looks at them without any idea about what Horcrux is, Ragnok tells him about the dark magic involved in creating the Horcrux and briefs him about general information of Horcrux. Horrified, Harry asks them if it is possible to remove this piece of soul from his body and was relieved when Tsoshi nods at him. Ragnok then continues and tells him that such procedure will require about 2 months to remove Horcrux and he will need further 2/3 months to practice the enhanced ability he will get after removal of blocks. Harry looks deflated and tells them that this is next to impossible as the school will reopen before he could finish the treatment. Then Ragnok informs him that, he need not worry about the time as being a goblin friend, he can avail the Time Bubble facility. With use of such facility, he can spend up to a year inside the time bubble and in real world it will be only 12 hours. Harry accepts the offer immediately and goes inside the facility to get treated. He also instructs Sharpclaw to take the required amount of fee from his personal account.

-Oo-

Once inside the facility, goblins ask him to sleep on a bed given to him. Once he is ready, they start chanting in a very different language. Harry tries to keep his eyes open as he wanted to understand the treatment, but he falls asleep almost immediately after the goblins starts his treatment.

Then after the eternity, Harry slowly feels the surrounding environment and opens his eyes. The scene he was looking at was very different than the goblin medical facility he was in last time that he remembered. He was very confused, when he suddenly realized that he was completely nude. He immediately thinks if he could have some cloths and the perfect fitting cloths appears beside him. After getting clothed to his satisfaction, he starts wandering to check the place he was standing.

But before he could walk 100 meters, he hears a loud screaming surrounds him. He immediately looks for the source and finds a very ugly looking creature at the end of the long platform like place. He steadily and cautiously approaches towards the creature thing. Once he reaches the creature, he wonders what it is and if he could ever help him. After spending many minutes thinking about this problem and coming up with nothing, he was harshly reminded of his lack of knowledge in the magical world. Thus he decides to leave the creature as it is and continue his exploration of place to look for the exits.

Suddenly he feels a presence besides him and reaches for his wand. But belatedly, he realizes that his wand is not with him anymore. Feeling little disturbed and frightened he looks at his visitor. The visitor is very old looking man, carrying a cloak which reminds him of his own invisibly cloak. The man had very amused expression on his face while looking at him which gave Harry a tangling sensation. Then the man's face turns sour once he starts looking at the creature. Finally gathering his Gryffindor courage, Harry asks the visitor, "Who are you and what is that thing?" The visitor turns back to look at him which prompts Harry to introduce himself saying "I am Harry Potter".

Amusement comes back to visitor's eyes, before he states "I know you, young Harry Potter. And you cannot help this soul as he had rendered himself beyond the help. I don't have long time dear boy and we must conclude the business I have for you. As to whom I am, I am known to your kind with very different names, but most people recognize me as a Death."

Before frightened Harry could interrupt him, Death continues "You see child, this is the soul piece of one Tom Riddle. He has cheated me and tried to become immortal. But as your headmaster very wisely told you 2 years back, nobody can cheat death and that I will always take what is rightfully mine. Now I will collect this piece to add to the one I already have from him. And I must hope that all remaining other pieces are also reunited with this one before long. But that is not the business I have with you."

"I will give you an option here as once upon a time I became friend with your ancestor. He was one and only true friend of mine as you have guessed correctly about the cloak that I carry is the brother of the cloak you carry. I had given that cloak to my friend as a gift and it has remain in your family ever since." Harry had lot of questions at this point and wanted to ask them, but once again Death put his hand up to stop him.

And he continues, "As you know Harry Potter, this creature is actually a piece of soul of Tom Riddle. It also contains the memories he had experienced before you defeated him approximately 13 years ago. This has all the knowledge Riddle has gained on various subjects and arts. I can allow you to have his knowledge which will help you fight him and do the right things he had done in wrong way. But it will come at a price. You must able to understand, accept and control the brutality this knowledge will give you. Otherwise my dear child it will consume you as easily as it had consumed the young Tom and then we must meet again for me to collect your soul. So tell me young Harry, are you different from Tom Riddle to accept this knowledge or you will ignore this offer to lead the simple life free of this burden and condemn many people to their destruction when Riddle comes back as he will do most certainly in near future?"

Gulping loudly and thinking about the situation, Harry again remembers a conversation he had had with his headmaster at the end of his second year. When he had asked about his similarity to Lord Voldemort, Dumbledore had told him that they do share many abilities but it is the choices Harry had made until then that made him very different from Voldemort. Also thinking about the lives those will be lost and families those will suffer because of it, Harry decides to accept the offer of gaining memories. He wanted nothing of that knowledge as he was sure that it will contain lot of things that he would never want to know about, but at the same time it gave him the opportunity to understand the families that Voldemort had ripped apart. He knew that with that knowledge he could help those families in the future.

Looking at Death he states that, "I don't like either choices and I don't know if I am prepared for either of them. But if it helps me to save at least one life then I will accept your offer to retain Riddles memories. Until now whenever I had to choose between what is right and what is easy, I tried my best to choose what is right. I hope I will do the same in the future as well. But I have few requests for you. One request is that if it comes to point that these memories start consuming me then please take my soul before I lead others to their destruction. The second request I have for you is that while I prepare myself to handle these memories, I want some protection to my mind. If you could just protect these memories till the time I am ready to access them, I would be glad for your help. Once I do access them then you can remove the protection."

Smiling mischievously at him Death speaks, "I approve your choice youngling. Now I believe this is your wand" showing him his beloved Phoenix feather wand. After softly murmuring while holding his wand Death continues "I have added few properties to this wand so you can continue to use it in future. I believe we will meet again very soon and then we may share few more tales. Now when you will wake up again you will have the memories from Tom Riddle as well as yours. You must be careful in using those. I will add the require protections around them. Also remember that you will not remember about meeting me till you are ready to have this knowledge." Looking at a strange device he had removed from his pocket he tells Harry with playful smile "Now that we have finished our business, we may have enough time to answer your one last question. So what do you want to know Mr. Potter?"

Harry amazed by this offer asks in slight stuttering voice, "But how do I know, you are what you claim to be? I really don't know if you are Death or not?"

Looking serious, Death answers "I am glad you asked this question Harry. This shows that my choice was correct to offer you the memories. Now coming back to your question, Harry a Horcrux can be removed only if it comes in contact with me i.e. Death. You have to destroy the soul container object permanently or mortally to destroy the Horcrux. Basilisk venom is a good contender to destroy Horcrux. If you remember, the poison in your body did not kill you immediately because it had weakened the other soul present in your body which was fighting the effect of venom. Any other person in your place would have died immediately. But before the poison could destroy you and Horcrux completely, the Phoenix tears saved you and in turn saved the soul of Tom Riddle. It may have tarnished few of the memories and you may not gain all the information in one continuous sequence I must warn you. But coming back, a goblin made armor cannot harm Horcrux unless they are enchanted with special spells and material. In normal scenario to remove the soul in your body, it was necessary to kill you and that is what the treatment goblins offered you. There are few other crude methods to destroy the Horcrux as well but those you will learn when you will start understanding the knowledge given to you by Riddle's memories. I hope this explanation about destruction of Horcrux answers your question. Now before we part our ways I have a bit of advice for you. Each person has some good things and some bad streaks. It is about the choice each one makes in his own life that make a person good or bad. Hence do not judge anybody before you know him well and do not trust anybody blindly because he may have some other motives for you in his heart. Now we must say goodbye to each other and I hope we meet again in friendlier manner. Eventually you will remember all this talk with me but it will come to you when you are ready to process it. You are a strange wizard Harry Potter, Good luck. Use the gifts given to you well."

With that the world around Harry starts moving and he feels like he is getting sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. Eventually he loses his senses and succumbs to the void.

-Oo-

Harry wakes up groggily, to an unfamiliar scene for hospital wing. He feels that he has a terrible headache and tries to remember where he is. Then slowly the memories start coming back to him. The shock of knowing that a Horcrux is in his body, acceptance of goblin offer to remove the Horcrux, knowledge about the method of destruction of Horcrux, the little advice about the life from very old looking friendly man and some unknown memories in the strongly protected corner of his mind, it all comes back to him slowly and steadily. He was sure of the fact that the memories ware that of Voldemort's.

With the new knowledge he understood that goblins tried to kill him and did not let him know about it. He was sure that if pursued, they can back out saying he did not ask about the details of treatment while accepting the offer. He immediately decides to deal with goblins in lot more careful way than before. Now that he was feeling OK, he decides to see what was going on around him so he opened his eyes. The first thing he registers was that his eye-sight has improved and that he may not be using the spectacles again. He was surprised to see a young goblin watching him from corner of the room. He waves at the goblin and the little creature immediately goes out of room.

When his room was opened again, it was to allow the healer party to enter, leading them was Tsoshi. Harry looks at them before murmuring greeting to Tsoshi and asks how much time has passed since they started the treatment. Tsoshi regards him with amazed eyes and starts chanting without answering him. Once she finishes the chanting and after confirming the results with her fellow healers she turns back to him and asks him if can sit on the bed. Harry nods before sitting on his bed. He understands that his body was same as before and that removal of Horcrux has not affected anything else. He could also feel his wand and invisibility cloak with him. He wonders about it for a moment before focusing on the issue at hand. He again asks the healer about his treatment and this time gets the answer.

"We thought that to remove Horcrux from your body, we will transfer the external soul to other object. While doing this we hit one of the blocks placed on you. This triggered a chain reaction and your magic responded by starting the explosions. This was most likely around the blocks placed on your body. Luckily, we had placed the safety runes in that room as a preparation for the ritual of transferring Horcrux, so we all could escape before your magic started affecting us. Once outside the danger area, we watched as your magic continued to explode for another 7 hours. After this your body got limp and we thought that magic explosion had killed you. We then slowly started experiments on you and found out that you were not dead. Immediately we bought you here and tried to find out what had happened. Our entire tests showed that all the blocks were removed from your body and so was the Horcrux from your body. We could not believe that as you had to destroy the object completely to remove the Horcrux and yet here we were with you still alive and no trace of Horcrux inside you. As to how much time has passed, we are 100 days since that little incident." Tsoshi finished her answering.

"I don't remember anything like that but I feel fine if not tired. I think after good sleep I would be fine to end this little expedition. I thank you all for your help and efforts in my treatment. I for one am glad that I am not dead yet and that the foul object is removed from my body." Harry responded carefully to the goblins. They all nodded and Tsoshi asked him if he need any food before assuring him that her tests shows that no lasting damage of procedure was found on his body. He asks for light food and thanks her again for his care. After light dinner he sleeps back on his bed.

Next morning he wakes up felling wonderful and decides to end his stay in time bubble as his main objectives were finished. After discussing this with Tsoshi she agrees to his plan. He then meets each and every goblin who was part of his healer time and thanks them personally while noting their names. Then they all depart the time bubble facility and Harry finds Longclaw in his office. He asks the young goblin to transfer 1000 galleons to each of 13 goblins involved in his treatment party. Then they go to visit Sharpclaw as Harry wanted to finish the other business with Gringotts at the earliest.

Longclaw asks him about his treatment and Harry assures him that he is fine and feels great. Once all three of them are settled in office of Sharpclaw, Harry asks for the list of books and valuable objects present in Potter Family vault. He asks Longclaw to give him a Gringotts pouch directly connected to his new personal vault. After that, Harry asks the older goblin if they can provide him a trunk containing time bubble facility. Sharpclaw asks him about his need and he explains that he needs to learn the control of his magic again as he has not handled such a large amount of magic before. After long thought, Sharpclaw told him that while it is possible for him to have such truck as a goblin friend; it is very costly and has many restrictions on its use.

That reminds Harry to ask about the cost of his initial treatment. Sharpclaw acknowledges it and told him that the cost is taken by Gringotts and it is 100,000 galleons. Harry accepts the cost and again asks about the truck. Reluctantly Sharpclaw tells him that it would cost him about 1 million galleons and he can use the time travel facility only 2 times in 5 years. But he can spend as much time inside it as he wants as long as it is less than 50 years. The outside time that will pass is 12 hours per one year in time bubble. But he will have to carry every single required material with him as he cannot communicate from outside world once he steps inside the bubble. Harry accepts this and asks Sharpclaw to prepare such truck immediately and to take the money from his personal vault.

Then he asks if the books from Potter family vault are copied and if he can buy the books back. Sharpclaw informs him that many books are in lockdown state that can only be read by a Potter but other books are ready. He also informs him that goblins are ready to sell him some of their books on certain subjects if he wants. Harry asks if he can remove the Potter family books which are in lockdown. Sharpclaw agrees to this and then Harry signs the deal to purchase the copies of books made from his vault and that Gringotts cannot use those books in any way. He also purchases the books from goblins about runes, Arithmancy, curse breaking, warding, and history of magic, healing, memory protection and magical creatures. Then they visit the Potter Family vault and take the books in lockdown state. He also recovers the journals written by his parents. The total cost of his book purchase comes to 5676 galleons for family books and 34532 for goblin books.

Harry then asks Sharpclaw to buy him a multi drawer trunk in which he can hold the material. Sharpclaw told him he needs a 7 drawer trunk and that goblins can sell him one for 10,000 galleons. Harry thinking this as costly informs Sharpclaw the same. Sharpclaw then gives him the details about the various wards and protections along with personalized locking system that comes with the trunk. He also advertises that a trunk prepared by goblins is much better that the one prepared by any other race. After some negotiation they agree on 7000 galleons and Harry takes his new trunk containing the all the books inside his pocket. He also collects the money pouch and credit card from Longclaw and time bubble trunk from Sharpclaw along the way. Before leaving Gringotts, Harry reminds the goblins that they should not contact him in summer. He will visit the Gringotts again in the summer and they can discuss any pending issues then. He also promises them to setup a new method from which they can communicate in the future.

-Oo-

Once outside of Gringotts, Harry takes a time to gather his thoughts. He decides to purchase few more books. He also realizes that he will need proper bookshelves to store the books inside trunk. Since it was late night, he goes back to his room, and prepares a list of items he wants to purchase such as books and parchments and quills. He adds wizard cloths, potion kits and potion lab setup to his list. So he decides that first he should make a stop to store where he can buy all the furniture and then visit different shops on his list.

The next day morning Harry wakes up early and decides to finish the shopping in Diagon Ally as early as possible as he wanted to spend some time in muggle London to purchase few more things. So after changing his appearance using glamour provided by Gringotts, he visits the Smiths Home Décor as his first stop. After explaining his requirement, he takes the young apprentice present in shop to 2nd compartment of his trunk. There he asks him to setup a library with a study table and 5 chairs. He also asks him to setup a couch in one corner of the room. He also asks for 2 computer tables just side of his study table. After explaining his requirements he watches in amazement as within few minutes his library is ready to fill in with the books.

Then they go to 3rd compartment where Harry asks to setup this as normal one bedroom flat. They setup a bedroom with King Size bed and small wardrobe and sitting room with 2 couches and large study tables where at least 10 people can study together. He also asks for computer table in this room.

In 4th compartment they setup a potions lab. For the 5th compartment Harry asks for small kitchen, simple bed, and few bookshelves. He also asks for a drawing table to be placed near the corner of the room. They also add small kitchen area in this compartment. 6th compartment is used for the keeping extensive wardrobe, storage area to store different artifacts and weapons. Harry also adds some more bookshelves in this room. Finally in 7th compartment he just sets up a small meditation room with simple furniture like table and some sleeping arrangements. After spending 1500 galleons on all the furniture and other décor requirements Harry goes to his next stop - Flourish and Blotts.

There he asks for books required till Mastery for Charms, Transfiguration, DADA, Potions, Herbology, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy. He also asks for addition books on warding and spells crafting. To this extensive list he adds books on wizarding culture, wizard politics in Britton, general wizarding history and few books on Quidditch and broom design. He also takes few books on general healing, healing required for accidental spell damage and healing of magical creatures. Then he asks the counter person if they have few books on memory related healing and thus adds the books on Occlumency and Legilimency. Finally he asks for the books about magical creatures and magical building construction to round of his purchase. He takes all the books and shrinks them so that they can fit in his trunk before he could sort out. He pays the bill of 56578 galleons and leaves the shop.

Next he visits Madam Malkin's shop to purchase the wizarding robes required. After that he visits the apothecary to fill his potions lab wit enough potions supplies. Finally he visits the food counter and fills his kitchen supplies with magical means.

After quick checking his lists, he then decides to visit Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley. Here he purchases some rare books on Dark Arts and few objects displayed on the counter. He then purchases a Pensive from a dealer selling some rare artifacts. Finally concluding his shopping in magical area, he goes back to his room. There he organizes his shopping and takes a quick lunch in the bar. After lunch he promptly visits the closest mall. Here he purchases various electronic items such as mobile phones, laptops and music players. He also purchases some muggle clothing to add to his wardrobe. Before leaving the mall he adds few more necessities required for kitchen and sitting room in his shopping cart.

Then he takes all the shopping and goes to nearby park. Finding a secluded spot behind the bushes, he checks to see if the park is empty and that no cameras are looking his way. Once satisfied with his findings, he transfers his shopping inside his trunk. Then he makes the last stop on his extensive list – the muggle book shop. Here he purchases few books on core subjects such as Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology. He also adds few books on architecture, drawing and computers. Finally he picks up lot of ink pens, pencils and notebooks and plane papers. Paying through credit card he again takes all his purchase to nearby secluded ally and transfers it back in his trunk. Happy with his shopping he looks at time and decides to go back to Private Drive before his relatives blow over their heads.


	3. Learning the Magic

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JKR does. This is a work of fiction based on this book series.**

**AN: Hi all. I am back with new chapter. Please go through it. As always, Read and Review. Thanks for your response and reviews.**

**Chapter 3: Learning the Magic**

Once Harry was back inside the 4, Private Drive he found out that Dursleys were waiting for him to come back. So after fixing a quick dinner for them he decides to have a little chat with them. But before he could open any conversation, Mr. Dursley shouts at him in his usual manner, "You Freak, you come back here. You tell your lot not to disturb us anymore. See this post, the postman was laughing at me and was very curious about who sent that letter."

Vernon Dursley was very angry, Harry concluded. He also guessed that the letter came from Mrs. Weasley; most likely about his invitation to Burrow for Quidditch world cup. Taking advantage of this situation Harry decides to make his conditions clear to his relatives for the next month or so. "I will inform Mr. Weasley about this inconvenience Sir." Harry states, before continuing "I believe this letter is about asking me to stay with them for the last week of my holiday so I could go with them for the Quidditch world cup. Anyway I want to offer you something that my godfather has asked me to do. You see he has given me some work to do. I need time and place to do this. But with you around it will be impossible for me to do it. Knowing this he had offered you a trip to USA for football world cup finals. If you want to take his offer then I will contact him and he will arrange the entire trip for you. In return you will allow me to stay in this place for as long as I want for the duration of my holidays. Also you will allow me to go to the Burrow for end of my holidays if I want to go."

Now this announcement sets all the Dursleys thinking. For Mr. Dursley, it was a hard choice between allowing his freak of a nephew free access to his place or to go to a full world cup visit to USA. With his salary from Grunnings, it was difficult to have a long away trip to USA. With the money that he could get from that criminal, he could easily enjoy himself and do not spend a penny from his account. This was looking good from his point of view.

But his decision was made by Dudley as he declared that he will take the offer and go to USA to support the real football team in show of national pride. Once Dudley had declared this, Harry knew that he has won his battle and all he had to do was to wait and see how things pan out ahead. Vernon after hearing statements from Dudley looks at Petunia and then reluctantly accepts the offer.

He also tries to put some conditions such as Harry should not touch anything in the house, should not visit any other rooms than his bedroom and kitchen and sitting room of house. Harry should also not touch TV and any other electronic instruments. He must take care of the Garden and Lawns of the house. Harry absentmindedly agreed to most of the terms as he was sure that once Dursleys were gone he will do what he wants. Finally getting tired of Vernon's rant, he asks if they still intend to go on a trip or not as he must tell his godfather about their decision. Purple in the face, Vernon tells him to do it at once and Harry immediately goes back to his room. He takes his money pouch, invisibility cloak and wand, applies the glamor and goes back to Gringotts via Knight Bus.

The bank was about to close but Harry asks to meet Longclaw and they setup a meeting in the office of Longclaw. Harry offers his apology to Longclaw for meeting him in such unusual circumstances and hasty circumstances. He then explains the situation to Longclaw and asks if he could help Harry to setup the trip. Longclaw accepts this and gives him a small plan. He asks Harry to setup a bank account in Royal Bank of Scotland with $50,000 for this trip to Dursley and to give them a credit card based on this account. He also tells him to book the trip adviser for organizing the finer details. Liking the plan, Harry tells him to setup the account with $60,000 in RBS and takes the credit card associated with this account. He thanks Longclaw for his help and goes to muggle London.

Here in the muggle London, he searches for trip organizer and visits the 1st option provided by search engine in local library. Dealing with Mr. Carroll was easy as Mr. Carroll himself was a big football fan and a die-hard supporter of Manchester United. While suggesting various sites and places in USA in accordance with World Cup matches, he was discussing the chances of Brazil winning the tournament. So when Harry comes out of his office, he had a temporary eternity for 3 Dursleys with return flight tickets from London to New York. The trip was planned for 3 weeks and Dursleys will be able to watch the final game in California before returning back to England.

Once Harry explains the procedure and arrangements made to eagerly awaiting Dursleys after coming back home, they were a very happy lot. Vernon and Dudley agrees to visit Mr. Carroll next day to finalize the remaining details and they immediately start packing as their 1st flight was leaving in just 4 days. Harry also gives them the credit card but warns not to use it here in England as the card will get active only if the first transaction happens from USA. When questioned about it, he reminds them that anything is possible with magic and then decides to end his taxing day.

-Oo-

Next day Harry wakes up late and decides to organize his new trunk. So over the next 4 days he very painfully makes the list of all books available with him and stores them at appropriate places inside his compartment. He also stores the other purchased material at its proper place inside his trunk. Meanwhile the Dursleys were super excited for the trip since with Mr. Carroll's help they could secure the visas required for such travel. They also managed to find the perfect hotels to for their stay. Thus exactly after one week when they left to meet Aunt Margie, the three Dursleys leaves for the USA trip after locking down the house and many rooms inside the house. Harry was sure that if given a chance, they would have locked him down as well, but since he had played the Sirius's card well, he was safe.

Once Dursleys were gone, Harry enjoys the peaceful day at the home. He makes a plan to spend some time inside the time bubble as he wants to gain the lost time in his education. From his early reading of family journals in last four days, he was well aware that his parents were super brilliant. But before entering the time bubble, he decides to ask goblins if ministry can detect the magic performed inside the bubble. Thus he spends the writing letters to his friends and to Lord Ragnok. He sends letter to Ron thanking him for invitation to Quidditch World Cup and updates him that it will be best if nobody disturbs him for next 4 weeks as his muggle relatives were not happy about receiving post from them. He also mentions that he may not able to reply any letters as since the postcard incident his uncle are bit unhappy about wizard contact. He promises to write back once things are settled down as any other contact may jeopardize his world cup participation.

He also writes letter to Sirius and asks him to come back to place they meet each other first time (Magnolia Crescent) in his animagus form after 10 days' time. He mentions that he has a surprise waiting for him and that it will be very safe for him. He then writes letter to Prof. Lupin to ask him to join Harry and Sirius in 10 days' time. Once letters are complete, he sends all letters via Hedwig and tells her about his plans before sending her. He tells her to visit Gringotts after visiting Prof. Lupin where she would drop letter for Sirius and Remus. Then finally she will go to Burrow and then come back to private drive in 8 days' time.

Harry then decides to make a plan for his study schedule inside time bubble. He decides to start the day at 6.00 o'clock in the morning and then do 2 hours of workout. Then he will start the training of core magic subjects for 3 hours after taking the breakfast. In post lunch session he decides to pursue the training for healing and other branches of magic. In post dinner session, he decides to pursue his other interests such as understanding the muggle science, wizarding history, his family history, drawing and music etc. He also decides to think about future planning that he must do after making a deal with Gringotts which effectively gives him full control to only 1/3rd of total money available to him. With this general idea ready, he decides to go to sleep and await the answer from Ragnok.

Next morning comes very quickly and Harry wakeup suddenly due to his dream about Peter and Voldemort. The prophecy given by Prof. Trelawney comes back to his mind as he anxiously waits for the reply from Ragnok. He then decides not to inform anybody about the dream but as a precaution just writes down his dream experience. Once that is done, he had time to kill before entering the time bubble. So he decides to read about how the time bubble will work from the little information the goblins has provided him. Around lunch time, he received the mail back from Lord Ragnok answering his query. As expected Ragnok confirmed that once inside the time bubble, nobody but the goblins can detect the magic. This is only because the goblins can detect the magic placed on time bubble and not what is going inside the bubble. He also advised Harry to use caution as once inside the bubble, nobody will be able to help him if required any help and if the time limit expires without person coming out then results could be devastated. How goblin magic reacts to such phenomenon is dependent on the wizards / witches present inside the bubble at that time.

Harry decided to continue with his program as he was sure that he can take care of himself. Littlie fearful about the device than before he then places the time bubble trunk on his bed. Then he collects his new and old trunk along with other things he has planned for taking inside the time bubble and stills himself. Then summoning his famous Gryffindor courage he enters the bubble.

-Oo-

Whatever he expected by reading about the device did not prepared in any way for the sight in front of him. It was a cozy 2 story house. It also had a rather large garden in front. Happily entering the house, he starts exploring it. While doing this, he decides to start marking the rooms for his study and other needs. He decides to keep his extensive library in two of the 4 first floor rooms. The remaining two rooms were then converted into study room and drawing room – i.e. one to study the magic and other to study the muggle science. He setup his bedroom on 2nd floor room. Beside this room he placed a meditation room. The storage room was added on this floor as well. On the ground floor, he setup a nice kitchen and potions lab. Outside he could do some gardening he mused. He was quite efficient with this work thanks to Petunia. He could also use this ground to get some much needed Quidditch breaks and early morning workouts.

The trip to basement left him in astonishment about what magic could do. Here was a store room containing the different supplies required for household. A note attached by Ragnok informed him that this material is enough to last for 50 years with 10 people staying in the house, but he should apply caution and should use something only when it is absolutely necessary. They have also stored some food items in stasis charm which can be removed when he wants to use it. Thinking about all the galleons used for this device were worth its value, he heads back upstairs and decides to call his day early. On the way he also comes across the weather manipulator from which he could control the weather inside the bubble. After taking small dinner and a single ride of Firebolt he happily heads back to bedroom to have a peaceful night sleep.

Next day he wakes up well rested and starts his morning workout. After that he prepares himself a small breakfast of eggs and sausages. After that he starts with a 4th year Transfiguration book. Discovering that the magic is either very easy to him or very hard to come in transfiguration, he decides to test his other subjects' knowledge from previous years. Discovering that his problem is about the controlling of magic after his removal of blocks placed on his magical abilities, he decides to concentrate on learning the theory of magic before starting the subject matter.

He also starts with Occlumency training as he still had not touch the memories of Voldemort and knew for sure that somehow he was protected from it as long as he does not think about them specifically. So he took out all the books he could find about these subjects and kept them in his study room. For initial muggle studies he decides to start from his basic school level grades so he can learn the subjects in normal course.

In the evening he would jump on the Firebolt and do some flying enjoying the pure joy that flying gave him. He would also spend some time to draw few little drawings. He was not best of artists as compare to Dean Thomas but was certainly good enough to enjoy his own work and relax around from his studies. He also started with reading the Potter family history from the journals he had taken from the family vault. He was also trying various different food types for each of the meal he was having. As a good practice he started maintains his own journals in notebooks he had purchased. He found it very efficient as it allowed him to write faster with pen. He could also draw some figures with pencils (which was easy to erase and change) for better demonstrations in journals.

This schedule continued for about 6 months where he learned that all kinds of magic are about the intent and not only about wand movements and spells. He learned how much magic should be used while doing small things. He also learned the finer control of wand movements and subtle flicks can produce the equivalent result to long drawn wand movements if used correctly with proper intent and right amount of magic. On Occlumency front he had progressed well and was able to hide his emotions quite well. Though he had not reached the level where he could hide everything he knew he had found the method to do this. He had discovered that using his new trunk like structure is best way to keep organization the memories. He was also very glad to find out that with removal of Horcrux, his memory has improved and he could recall the learned things in much better way than before. As far as muggle studies were concerned, he had finished the basic learning of most of the subjects he was taking.

For the next phase, Harry decided to start from 1st year Hogwarts curriculum for core wand subjects with Herbology and Potions. He continued with muggle studies and Occlumency as it is and started this schedule in roughly the same manner. However, he quickly learned that because of increase power and higher understanding of magic, he could finish the first 2 years of Hogwarts in almost no time.

He was proficient in Herbology as he knew fairly well how to take care of plants. The only problem he was facing here was due to lack of Green Houses and actual plants; he was not getting any practical experience in Herbology. To counter this, he started the gardening exercise in earnest. The logic behind this idea was that if he knew how to take care of plants in general then with his higher understanding of plants the subject will be easy for him. As precaution, he made a note to ask Neville and Prof. Sprout about few queries he had.

These extra efforts in Herbology were also paying dividends in Potions. With absence of his second enemy – Prof. Snape – from his back, he discovered that he could brew very good potions. This gave him immense pleasure as through family journals he knew that his mother was great potioneer. His strong points in Charms were also giving him comfort as was his great grasp of Transfiguration. His dad was perusing the mastery in Transfiguration while his mother was doing same for Charms. On one evening while flying he thought that his better understanding in biology and chemistry were also helping him in Potions. He also wondered if that was a reason why muggle born students were such great potioneer in the past as well. In any way he was not complaining about his progress of magical studies. He then decided to continue with these five subjects till NEWT level while completing the Occlumency training in same duration. Along with muggle subjects he added Magical Creatures so he could continue his Hogwarts education.

For next 3 years Harry was continuously improving his magical abilities in five core subjects taught at Hogwarts. DADA was still his strong point but he had excelled in Transfiguration, Charms and Potions. Herbology was still giving him problem with unavailability of magical plants but he added the basic healing course in its place. He still completed theory part of Herbology till NEWT but did not focus on it with as much attention he was giving to other subjects. In this time he had finished NEWT level courses in all other subjects, was good at basic healing and was knowing lot more magical creatures than he ever thought were existing. He had also started casting non-verbally and was practicing for wand less spell casting. He had finished his muggle subjects till college level. He wanted to continue learning of mathematics and physics further along with some basics of computer and electronics. He had completed his Occlumency training and was confident that he could not only hide his true thoughts from any other person looking inside his brain, he also could feed them wrong information of his choice. This had given him a lot of pleasure as he was ready to learn the Voldemort's memories.

So after almost 4 years of continuous studies, he decided to take break from his schedule. But before taking the break, he spend a day removing all the memories of Voldemort and store them in glass vials so he could study them using Pensive. Then for one whole week, he just enjoyed the sunny weather he had set. He conjured the large swimming pool and spent lot of time swimming. He also enjoyed doing various new skills he had developed on his broom. On occasions when he was bored, he just cooked the food in kitchen which was very relaxing in its own manner.

When he was ready to start the study schedule again, he was refreshed and raring to go. For next part he had changed his schedule slightly and he would be starting the two electives he was not aware of – Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. He also decided to add warding, advanced healing and spells crafting to his main curriculum. As for the advance studies of his core subjects were concerned, he decided to pursue the mastery level understanding of Charms, DADA, Transfiguration and Potions. He was also intent on starting his animagus training. He had already decided his subjects in muggle world and for light reading wanted to start the broom designing as he had finished most of the family journals.

After another 3 years of continuous learning and study, he had finished core subjects till mastery level. He had finished advanced healing as had the NEWT level courses for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. He was excellent in Warding and spell crafting which was evident from number of new wand movements he had developed to do something which normally would require long wand movements. He had also developed number of new spell chains with his movements and was sure that if he had to battle, he would be handful opponent to anybody. He had designed various new brooms which he was sure that they would be appropriate for various other situations. One of his designs was for the Quidditch play and he was sure that it will provide better results than Firebolt as he had the advantage of understanding the subtle art of flying. He had finished the muggle courses for mathematics and physics till graduation level and was intent on getting degree from Muggle University in the future. He had basic understanding of computers and electronics, which he was going to use in his next project. He had also completely mastered the art of Occlumency and Legilimency in this time frame.

His animagus study was a different story though. From the journals of his father he had understood that Marauders had used the potions to find their animal form. But since he was master Occlumens, he had another method available – the mind therapy method. He had gone for second method as he wanted to explore all available animal forms before choosing his base animal form. After studying for 6 months, one evening he had found out his first form – the Phoenix. He had continued to search for other animals though and was surprised to find that he had in all 7 animal forms available. Along with Phoenix, he had Thunderbird, Eagle Owl, a Panther, a puppy, a horn tail dragon and a pit viper snake. After long thought and study of old family books, he concluded that he could pursue more than one animal forms.

So he decided to take Eagle Owl as his base form and tried to chase three other forms with it – the Phoenix, the Thunderbird and the panther. So after long meditation sessions which generally consumed his nights, at the end of the year he was able to covert to and from Eagle Owl. Once this transformation was complete, he had it easy with other animal shapes and he quickly mastered the transformation to all pre-decided animal forms. Further he completed the training of transforming in between shapes. So at the end of his 7 years study he was ready with changing shapes, though he had complete control over only Panther – which he had named as Shadow. In his eagle owl shape he could tentatively fly whereas he had not attempted to do any of this with Phoenix and Thunderbird form.

Once again he took a break for 2 weeks to recapture and revitalized from his schedule. He knew that from hence forth he will have to start understanding the memories of Voldemort in order to defeat him. He had to make plans his own future as well as continuing his touch with various subjects he had finished. Though the project he was most interested in was making muggle instruments work in wizarding environment. He had tentatively touched upon the problem while learning Runes and warding but now he wanted to take this a step further and wanted to use mobile phone and a computer inside Hogwarts. He was sure that if he applied himself properly, he would be able to do that. So his next phase of self-study plan was ready to commence. Architecture as muggle subject to help him design Potter Manor, application of various subjects to convert mobiles and laptops in useable modules in wizarding world, study of Voldemort's memories, study of Goblin knowledge about warding and curse breaking.

He started the memory learning session with last memory he had received – that of 1981 Halloween. After viewing the memory though, he was unable to do anything for next month. This was because of the shocking discoveries he had made while watching this memory and their implications bothered him. He learned that Voldemort has not cast the killing curse on his parents, but had done something truly horrible. He had banished them in different time zone from which only he was capable to recall them. He had done that in a crude and intelligent move as he would be able to control them after their rebirth. He had punished his every opponent in this manner. Harry was sure that when he will go through the entire life of Voldemort, he would be finding many people in such time zone.

Collecting himself about their situation was very difficult for him and on many occasions he came close to go back to real timeframe. But he continued the self-healing with his meditation technique and was determined to learn everything about it. He was surprised and astonished to understand that the green light emitting from Voldemort's wand can have two meanings. This alone was bad news and he was truly frightened to face Voldemort in battle for some time. However, the burning desire to make his parents safe held him on.

Once he regained his bearings, he altered his schedule and decided that he needs a place to heal his parents – i.e. the Potter Manor must stand tall once again. Thus he studied the architecture course very studiously and completed the large manor design in 2 months' time. Then he designed a very complex warding schema based on goblin and wizard based designs. He also added many new defenses to this that he had developed while studying DADA. Once this was done, he worked on another structure – the Quidditch Farm. This was based on his knowledge of football training facilities many English teams were developing. The concept was to develop a world class Quidditch training facility which can be used by professional teams and school children at same time. Another two months of architectural designing work and he was ready with his design for Quidditch Farm. He wanted to develop this to mainly source his income in the future.

Once this was done, he finished his project of modifying muggle electronic instruments to use in magical world. The small crafting in laptop battery provided the constant power source required for any instrument. The careful warding and application of newly developed rune structure allowed him to tame the magical flux involved around the instrument. This combined with uninterrupted power supply; he was able to use any muggle instrument in wizarding world.

He also finished his courses in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes till Mastery level. This was mainly possible due to vast amount of knowledge proved by Gringotts books in these areas. He was fairly good curse breaker as well because of his natural affinity DADA and wards. This along with his mastery of his animagus forms he was ready to once again face the making and breaking of the Dark Lord.

-Oo-

After spending nearly 8 years in continuous study of magic, Harry was ready to visit the Voldemort's memories once more. But unlike his last attempt, he had planned on systematic approach. As is with his study, he knew that to understand what has happened with his parents he must start from basic. So he arranged the memories in sequential manner based on the timeline. Once this was done, Harry also prepared a list of objectives which he wanted to complete. As he can achieve the effect of mass stunning and conjuncture of plush chair with same wand flick he was sure that Voldemort was also capable of such feat. For him, to cause the mass stunner, it is easy if he has cast the spell verbally. So he knew there would be some indication from Voldemort as to which spell he was using. Since he had the memories albeit not all and few broken, from Voldemort's point of view, he knew about the intent of each spell. His main objective was to find out the subtle difference that Voldemort would be employing in these cases. This was very important aspect for him as in real battle with Voldemort; it would be of enormous advantage for Harry and every other opponent. He also decided to do this study very slowly and methodically so as to not to miss any aspect. The memories present to him were there only source of information about Voldemort and he needed to trade the waters carefully. If not he ran the risk of turning himself like Voldemort or turning himself insane. Thus he thought that two memories per week with a day for rest were how he will progress. He also wanted to list all new spells with their effects and other references in separate journals.

So after deciding the learning process and fixing a schedule for himself, he started going over the memories. The initial few memories showed him that while growing up in orphanage was difficult for young Tom, although he was well aware of his powers. He was attracted to gain more power over others and command them to do his binding. From the moment young Tom had seen the power Dumbledore wielded, he was afraid of the old wizard. He always tried to maintain the safe distance between himself and Dumbledore. He learned about the process Voldemort had used to create the Horcrux, their locations, curses placed on each Horcrux and the objects used. He was also aware that Voldemort had killed his first enemy while he was still at the school. He also knew that Voldemort was intending to create one more Horcrux when he went to Godric Hollow. He learned that Voldemort was very powerful opponent in terms of pure raw magic. He had improved his stamina of casting difficult and magic draining spells by conditioning his body. Voldemort was master manipulator and was capable of fooling almost everyone.

Lord Voldemort was also vicious to his victims and categorized each one on their magical power. Those he thought worthy, he banished them in time zone from where only he could bring them back. Anybody else trying to enter this time zone will inadvertently notify Lord Voldemort. This was due to precaution Voldemort had taken while casting the time spell on his victims. The spell itself was made up of multiple parts. One was putting the victim in deep sleep, other calling the correct time zone, another putting protection on victim, one for putting protections on time zone and final being pushing victims inside time zone and sealing it. Voldemort had also taken habit of adding more protection spells on his time zone every time he sealed it. He had also made the one way seal on time zone. Because of this once a victim is removed from time zone, his mind would be destroyed. Only the correct healing spell from Voldemort's wand would able to help them. This gave him the advantage of building the wizarding army from his victims.

Harry also learned about the magic used behind the Dark Mark. The requirements needed to take dark mark kept him nauseous for many days. The death eater must kill an innocent child, rape a virgin girl, rape another women and should able to demonstrate capacity to cast unforgivable on their own family members. He enjoyed the sessions where death-eater would be started casting cruciatus curse on their family members. In case of women death eaters, he wanted them to show their loyalty by abducting 10 virgin girls for the benefit of his other supporters. Then they have to cruciate them to insanity before killing. Learning all this was very difficult for Harry and he took this information very slowly. Whenever he thought he cannot continue for the day, he stopped and used one of the animagus form to relieve his stress. Flying in owl form was excellent part time in such days, he had learned.

Final part that Harry could gain from Voldemort was mostly academic. Here he learned many spells classified as Dark. He was surprised to find that Voldemort was master of "Sanskrit" language, which enabled him to cast many spells in fast and undetectable manner. This gave Harry the idea of learning many old languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. Because most of the spells were in Latin, he was sure that knowledge of the language will help him in controlling his magic. For this part of study, Harry mostly listed down the spells from memories. Once he was sure that he had covered all information from the memories, he took a break to make the strategy for the future.

-Oo-

The first thing he had done in the break was sorting of memories in different groups such as Horcrux related, spells related, victim banishment related etc. Then he re-organized his library inside the trunk and put the computer he had converted there. In this computer, he had created the list of all books available and their location. He had also magically enhanced this list. So when he wanted to take any book, he simply had to search the book in computer and once the book is located it would be taken out and placed on computer table. He also used similar method to store the journals he had written. This he placed in different part of trunk. The journals related to his family were kept in his bedroom part of trunk. He also expanded the trunks meditation room so that he can do the running inside it.

Once he was done with reorganization, he started the future planning. The first step for this was to visit the plans he had drawn for Potter Manor and Quidditch Farm. He was very glad that he chose to do this as he could find few areas to improve the plans. He knew that at the time of designing, his mental health was not at its best and hence took his time while redesigning the two structures.

For Potter Manor, he surrounded the main area by large and rare trees, which could be useful as wand wood. The outer most trees would be pine as he loved the smell. In this forest he intended to keep the unicorns and hippogriffs as he wanted to give them free and safe hiding spot. This was also more on the sentimental part as through family journals he knew that his grandmother Dorea Black-Potter had Unicorn heard in old Potter Manor.

On one side of the property he noticed the presence of river. This he used for his advantage and designed the main wing of the manor in ship shape such that all major bedrooms will get view of this part of property. On the river beach itself, he added the charms to keep weather in hot and added the white sand beach. This coupled with presence of topical trees like coconut completed the effect desired by Harry – the tropical beach. Further down the stream, he reduced the length of the river and added a small bridge from which anybody can enjoy floating legs in flowing water.

On the back side of Manor, he added the Quidditch Pitch for practice and remaining space was used to develop the large green house that can contain variety of plants. The greenhouse was also to develop the rare potions ingredients which could be taken from plants. In the front he added rather large garden one side of which was the access road. He wanted to have various flower plants in the garden. This large garden was mainly to enjoy the presence of family around him and to have fun in animagus forms. He also added small pool in one corner of garden where they could grow the lily flowers. He added the swimming pool below the main turf of front garden which could be used in summer days for swimming and to have water sport activities.

The front door of the manor was designed in shape of Griffin. He added a complex warding scheme because of which the opening of door will resemble in flying off of Griffin. This also allowed him to put one extra line of defense to manor. The roof of the manor was designed in the shape of Thunderbird in its flight. The head of the bird was pointing towards beach so it can be used to keep watch on the access road. The tail feathers were used as decorative purpose which gave the stunning effect to the house. Harry added Owlery in the shade created by tail feathers of roof.

The actual manor was designed such that it had about 20 double size bedrooms, a large hall where up to 50 people can have the meal. He added identical hall to this room in the basement such that it was based on Hogwarts Kitchen. He added library on the first floor of the house along with 5 conference rooms cum office rooms. Each of these rooms was equipped with its own private floo. The central hall on ground floor was also equipped with the public floo network. The upper floor mostly contained bedrooms and sitting room. He made sure that not all bedrooms are side by side so that residents can get their privacy. Also addition of sitting rooms gave him flexibility for assigning rooms to his friends and/or relatives. The top floor of house was completely open space hall.

With the roof made up of glass Thunderbird, the light effect he assumed would be stunning. He added a magical fountain in the shape of Phoenix in the middle of the room. He wanted this hallway to display the photos and portraits of his family. He also wanted to display some of his drawings here. This hall was permanent art display room in his mind. As for the front gate of property, he used the huge dragon like structure as the security entrance. The left wing of Dragon acted as the entrance door to the property. The head of the dragon could be used as the security check post.

Once this was done, he added various warding schemas for various structure of property. Then he integrated all these schemas in overall warding of the property. As a precaution, he decided to add the blood wards to on overall property. Similar to his house inside time bubble, he used different weather related charms on different parts of property. Thus tropical beach received its own weather charm as did the greenhouse and Quidditch pitch. He wanted to experience normal English weather for most of the house and hence did not add major weather schemas on it. He added few charms on forest area where he intended to keep the animals such as unicorns.

As for the Quidditch Farm, he decided to have 50 main training pitches. He wanted to give 4 pitches per professional team for their usage per session. So he made 10 groups of 4 pitch each. Then for each group he added a large ground containing swimming pool, which could be used for physical exercise and team discussion. He added the housing structure and a muggle gym around these 5 grounds to finish the training complex. While warding, he made sure that each of these 10 small training complexes are independent of each other.

He further added another set of 10 pitches for the Quidditch camps the complex would be holding. He added 20 more small training pitches which could be used to teach flying or personalized training. He added the boarding school type structures near these pitches so the participants can stay there. He also made sure to keep space for few shops near these pitches which could sell various products. Final part of this training complex was addition of classrooms to teach about the Quidditch rules and commentary and various other subjects.

On far end of the property, he added the animal reserve facility. Here he wanted to keep the rare animals and magical creatures in need of help. This was his recent addition as he was sure that Hagrid would appreciate such facility. Also the experience with Buckbeak had showed him the necessity of such place.

He designed the staff quarters close to the main entrance of the property. He added small parks and playgrounds around the quarters. He also added the muggle Movie Theater and gym here as well. He then designed proper warding schemas for each training complex, staff quarters, reception room and animal sanctuary. He then designed the warding schemas used for the entire property. He again made sure that nobody can spy on the rival team. This was achieved by use of improved fidelius charm placed on each main training complex. This was designed in such a way that when one is revealed the secret, only then he would remember all training. Thus each team can train with certainty about their team plans as long as they disclose their training complex location to only those within their team. He also placed the different modified version of fidelius charm that Voldemort had thought about on the property. This allowed him to keep information about the property location for a specific time period. He was very proud of his developments of these charms as they were dead useful.

-Oo-

In the final year of his stay inside time bubble, he learned about wand lore and healing magic. The former was due to the fact that his wand shared the core with Voldemort's wand. Hence he was intrigued if he could use his wand to pull the people placed inside time zone without informing Voldemort. He could not find much information about it. Though the study helped him remove the trace that was placed on his wand by ministry. The healing was mainly due to fact that once his parents were retrieved from time zone, they would be insane. Placing them under imperious curse was also not an option for him. Hence he wanted to search for a method or ritual by which he could give them back their sanity. Here also his search was ended in disappointment, though there was a small reference made by Godric Gryffindor about ritual developed by Salazar Slytherin. Since that was the only reference he had, he decided to keep that in mind and visit the Chamber of Secrets once he goes back to Hogwarts.

Thus after spending almost 12 years studying various forms of magic and making plans for future, he started packing for his return trip. On one hand he was very anxious to get back and meet Sirius and Remus which will be his first contact in long time. He was also very sad to leave the time bubble as it gave him the security and tranquility in his life that he never experienced before. Thus again making sure that he has taken everything he had brought in, he left the bubble and come back to smallest bedroom of 4, Private Drive.


	4. Clear the Air Discussion

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JKR does. This is a work of fiction based on this book series.**

**Author Note: Hi all. I am back with new chapter. As previously posted in separate note, I have gone through first 3 chapters and made few corrections. I cannot guarantee you that all mistakes are corrected, but I have tried my best. Also I really appreciate your reviews and thanks for posting those comments. As for this chapter there are few surprises for you. As I have already mentioned, this is not a typical Harry x Deplane story and hence not a typical Dumbledore bashing story either. So enjoy the ride. **

**Please go through the new chapter and as always, Read and Review. **

**Once again, Thanks for your response and reviews.**

**Chapter 4: Clear the Air Discussion**

It was late night at Private Drive when Harry came back from the time bubble. It was a week since he had sent letters to his friends, Harry realized. That means he had three more days before he had to meet Sirius and Remus. He wanted to do lot of things before meeting Sirius and Remus, but was very tired for the day as changing time zones via time bubble had a very different impact on your body. So he decided to worry about all else next day and was soundly sleeping within minutes.

The next day came very early for Harrys' liking but he still woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning. He did his normal routine of running, physical exercise and mind control exercise in the healing and meditation room of his trunk. Once done he quickly prepared a small breakfast for himself. True to their promise, Hedwig arrived at private drive while he was taking the breakfast. Harry gave her few owl treats and took her outside of house from backside. Once there, he changed to his Eagle Owl form and started the flight. Hedwig, who was momentarily caught off-guard by Harry's antics, rejoined him immediately hooting loudly with the delight, started showing him lot of new things about flying in owl form. After nearly spending 1 hour in flying, Harry decided to get on with his day. Thus they end their flight lesson for the day after Harry promised Hedwig to do such playing in the evening.

Once back in the house, he carefully applied glamor and then took his wand, money pouch and invisibility cloak with him in a discarded shoulder bag of Dudley. He added the plans he had designed for Potter Manor and Quidditch Farm to his traveling bag. Then he left the house to visit Diagon Ally by taking a Knight Bus. Once he reached London after a very fanatic 15 minutes ride, he entered the Diagon Ally via Leaky Cauldron. Then he sets off to visit Gringotts and stands in the shortest queue for the teller. While standing there he wonders if Gringotts goblins were aware of his actual identity or they were just allowing him because of his status with them. Once he reached the teller, he asked for the meeting with Longclaw and got directed towards his office.

After greetings were exchanged between the goblin and wizard, Harry removed his glamor and asked Longclaw to setup a meeting with Ragnok and Sharpclaw at the earliest. Longclaw informed him that they can meet the director after 15 minutes and that director had agreed to meet him for 30 minutes. Harry thanks the young goblin and asked for the exact amount present in his personal vault. He then asked Longclaw whether goblins consider in investing the money in muggle companies. Longclaw informs him that this is a sensitive topic and he should not discuss it without permission from senior leaders. Accepting this answer they waited for their meeting with director.

-Oo-

Once all the participants of meeting were settled in the office of Lord Ragnok, the old goblin asked Harry "It seems you have used the time device, Harry. Is it related to the device you want something to be discussed?"

Harry grinning broadly at them answered back, "Oh no, Lord Ragnok. It is indeed true that I did use the time bubble facility to do some study and to make up for the lost time of fast few years, but I found the device to be perfectly safe and sound. In fact let me thank you formally for providing such a wonderful device to me. I cannot express my sincere thanks to you in mere words. It had helped me a lot in understanding the finer control of my magic after the treatment provided by you goblin friends. But the working of device is not what I wanted to discuss with you."

Taking a pause he gauges the reaction of three goblins, and finding no change in their expression, he continued, "I have a business proposition for you, Lord Ragnok. I want to build two structures and want them to be built by goblins. One is Potter Manor and other is Quidditch training facility. Last time when we had similar discussion, you had informed me that goblins can do something like this for their friends. I want to take your offer on it."

The two senior goblins were surprised at this request from Harry. When Harry had asked Ragnok about possible construction of Manor, Ragnok had taken Harry lightly. He had thought that the young man was just curious. Now though that question seemed not so innocent. Before committing anything Ragnok decided to check how much Harry wants this deal and how much serious he really is. Giving nod to Sharpclaw he indicated the other goblin to ask the question.

Recognizing the signal from Lord Ragnok, Sharpclaw then turned his attention on Harry and asked, "It is true that goblins can build beautiful structures. It is also true that we can offer this service to you Harry, as you are recognized by goblin nation as a Goblin Friend. But I am afraid that building a Manor is a long and tedious process. There are lots of things we need to consider and taken care for. With the time restriction you have it will be nightmare for us to consider such proposal."

Smiling at the response given by Sharpclaw, Harry answered their concerns, "I do agree with you about the long and wearisome process involved in the construction of manor, my friends. Hence I have something else for you. Here are the plans for the two structures I want you to build. I have added the warding schemas as well. Further as for the time requirement, we can always use the time bubble. In fact I will insist upon using such device and thus we can hide the manor effectively." Here Harry extracted the plans he had developed for the Manor and Quidditch Farm from his bag and handed them over to the goblins.

Now that he was sure that the young wizard sitting in front of him is indeed very serious about the proposition, Ragnok took a look at the warding schema developed for the Manor. What he saw surprised him. It was a very good design for such a complex structural warding and designed very intelligently. The use of separate warding for separate part of property and then integration of those schemas was genuinely high level stuff. He immediately asked Harry about the designer of the schemas, thinking about hiring this person in Gringotts service. When Harry answered that it was he who had developed those schemas, all three goblins present in the room were surprised beyond their imagination. Ragnok sensing the opportunity for the goblins immediately asked Harry if it was ok with him to share the plans with chief architecture of goblins. Once Harry had agreed to this proposition, he sent Longclaw to fetch Nagnok.

Meanwhile both Ragnok and Sharpclaw started asking questions about the warding design to Harry. Harry correctly guessing that goblins were testing him for his depth of knowledge answered the questions very carefully. He was giving enough information about the warding structure he had used but was not going into details of exact spells he would use. When Nagnok entered the room, Harry was very relieved as at least for time being his questioning session was put on the hold. Ragnok then quickly goes over the two plans with Nagnok. From the snippets of their conversation that Harry understood, he thought that the goblins were ready to build two structures and were in fact deciding about the arrangements required for such project. After the discussion between goblins was over, Ragnok asked Harry to take lunch and that they will continue their discussion after lunch. Harry taking the clue as he was no more needed for the discussion exits Gringotts to take lunch at Leaky Cauldron.

Meanwhile the goblins continued their discussion about the price of constructing the two structures they should ask from Harry. Ragnok wanted to add some leverage about the warding schema as he wanted to gain knowledge of newly developed spells used in schema given by Harry. Nagnok on other hand wanted keep hold of the both architectures as they contained some unique designs and he wanted to use them in future constructions for goblins. Then they also had to consider the issue of time bubble, Harry was insisting on using. It was one very closely guarded secret of goblins and use of it in such open landscape may attract some unwanted attention to goblin nation. Everybody had agreed that this was unacceptable and were thinking about the alternative methods.

When Harry returned to the meeting room after lunch, he discovered the three senior goblins in exact same spot as before. Once Sharpclaw realized that Harry had in fact rejoined them, he told Harry the problem they were facing about using time bubble. Harry thinking about it promptly replies that he had a perfect solution for it. He explains the working of new fidelius charm that he had developed to them and then told the goblins, "to counter the problem you are facing in use of time bubble; we can apply the modified fidelius charm on the site with one of you being the secret keeper. Then as long as you are not divulging the location to unwanted people, you can hide the place and any use of magic inside it for duration of construction. Once construction is over, we will remove the charm and then I can apply new fidelius charm on it as per my convenience." This prompted for another round of discussion between the goblins.

After a while Ragnok addressed Harry, "On the prima facie even if we agreed to do these constructions for you, the cost involved would be huge. You will most likely have access to such amount but I must warn you that once we enter the project, you cannot back out for any reason."

Harry happily grinning inside replied back saying, "I understand your reluctance in doing something like this for me Lord Ragnok. But let me assure you about something, I am doing this for the future war that will come to us very soon. As it is we are very much unprepared for any kind of war and next time wizards enter a conflict among themselves, it will impact all other magical races as well. Further one must pay the cost of war and I need a safe house where I could plot and do the planning of war. These two structures are my insurance policy for the future. As for the actual cost of construction, I am sure we can agree to a price suitable for both the parties."

Ragnok then responds back, "Very well Harry. Let's discuss the cost of such construction and time involved to do so. While discussing with our chief architecture Nagnok, we may require up to 8 years to complete the constructions in given manner. The extra time is due to the fact that it is easier to safeguard the building if it is constructed in muggle way. So we will first build the building in muggle way and then use magic on it. Also there are lots of pieces of Manor you want made up of Glass. This will also take time. Thus the cost of total construction would be approximately 300 million Galleons. This will include all required material, development cost and salary of workers. Warding such structures will cost 2 million Galleons more; however there are some spells which require wand use. Since we goblins do not have authority to do so, it must be done separately. You can either hire some other service provider for doing this or you can hire some Gringotts employee to do it. The development of extra Quidditch pitches will cost you around 50 million galleons more, although since they would be goblin made I can guarantee you they would be the best in the world. If you want to develop the forest and magical creature reserve while such construction is going on, it would be charged extra."

Now Harry started thinking about the proposal. On the first impression, it was good. He certainly had enough money from which he could afford building such huge places. So money was not an issue for him. What he was looking at was any small loopholes that goblins had kept to exploit on a later date. Finding none immediately, he asked about the cost of time bubble. To this Sharpclaw replied, "that will totally depend upon how much time you want to suppress. For example if we use the device similar to one you have, then it will cost you approximately 100 million Galleons. Also the cost of construction would also go up by 10% to accommodate time bubble facility. If we use slower time bubble which will finish the construction in a year, then it will cost you around 10 million Galleons. If you still want to go faster, then the cost would be even more."

Thus Harry had a decision to make. Ideally he wanted to have these two constructions ready before his meeting with Sirius. But that will involve huge extra cost. As it is with similar time device to his, the entire construction was costing around 500 million Galleons. Finally making his mind, he asked Sharpclaw to give him final estimation of cost to complete these constructions in one single day. Both Ragnok and Sharpclaw looked surprised at his request and after quick calculation, told him that it would cost him around 775 million Galleons. This involved every single service taken from Gringotts which means that warding would also be done by Gringotts employees.

After some small negotiations about the cost they all agreed to 750 million Galleons as a price. Nagnok would be the goblin secret keeper for the two sites. Nagnok also suggested a small change in design of keeping option of magical expansion of the rooms as and when required. Harry liked the idea and requested to add this option to all the rooms of Manor and main guest house of training complex. Ragnok also suggested adding a safe room in the manor, from which they can make a quick exit. Harry added few new protections to this room such that no outside spells would have any effect on it. They decided to keep the entrance of room from library. Also major furniture involved in the two structures would be goblin made. The part of furniture which goblins could not make would be taken from wizards. The construction would start next day and the final touches would be given on the day after. On the day when Harry was going to meet Sirius, Ragnok agreed that they would give Harry multiple Port-keys to two places. After signing the contract with Ragnok, Nagnok and Sharpclaw takes Harry to two locations. There Harry places his modified fidelius charm and makes Nagnok as the secret keeper. After concluding his business with goblins, Harry returned back to the private drive.

-Oo-

The next day, Harry decided to have some practice of flying in his owl form. So after small breakfast, he along with Hedwig sets out to have fun. They enjoy their flying for approximately 2 hours. Harry also scouts the area where he was going to meet Sirius. He had a plan for this meeting and wanted to make sure that the place is secure enough. Once back for lunch, he cooks a small lunch and then they both take the afternoon off. In the evening Harry starts writing a letter he wanted to send to Prof. Dumbledore. He wanted to ask some questions to the headmaster and wanted to make sure that the impending meeting happened on his term. After finishing the letter, he again goes out in his owl form and scouts the area of Magnolia Crescent. As per the norm, Hedwig accompanies him. They found a tree on the border where they both could hide till Sirius comes to the park. Once he was satisfied with his discovery, they were back to private drive and Harry was asleep within moments.

Next morning harry prepared himself a healthy breakfast. It promised to be a huge day and he knew at the end of the day either he will have few more allies or will break few relations. After taking his breakfast, Harry sends Hedwig to deliver the letter to Prof. Dumbledore. He warns her not deliver it before late evening as he would not be ready to receive his guests before evening. When Hedwig starts her journey after giving soft nibble to his ear, Harry watches her with little pang of sadness in his heart. He always loved his owl and was very proud of intelligence Hedwig possessed. After spending nearly half an hour in the kitchen back door of 4 - private drive, Harry starts final preparation for his day. He packs a small backpack with the necessary things; the invisibility cloak, marauders map, his new trunk. He keeps his wand with him. He also keeps his Firebolt inside his trunk and then goes out of house after applying the glamor, locking it magically.

As a first stop, he wanted to visit a local property dealer to check if any of the houses on Private drive were there for purchase. After a short bus ride, he found the perfect place and there he meets Mr. Dean, who was very helpful towards him. When he enquires about a property on Private Drive, Mr. Dean told him that at present they were not listed on for sale, but number 1 was up for sale few months back. Harry wonders if the owners would still be interested in doing the business and Mr. Dean assures him to provide information by end of the day. Once this business was concluded, Harry takes Knight Bus to Diagon Ally.

Once he was inside Gringotts, he visits Longclaw. There he instructs the goblin to purchase some property in Diagon Ally, as Harry wanted to use it to rent the shopkeepers. Once Longclaw makes few notes about the requirement about this request, Harry asks him to setup the meeting with Ragnok for handover of properties. He also informs Longclaw to pay each worker involved in construction a bonus of 1000 galleons. As they were finishing their business, a young goblin informs them that Lord Ragnok is waiting for them to join him. Unlike other meetings with Ragnok, this was short and sweet. Ragnok gave him two pouches containing 10 port-keys to each place. Harry thanks the goblin Lord and then informs them that he intended to visit the places. Thus he takes their leave and activates the port-key to Potter Manor.

Now since Harry had no experience in travelling via Port-key, he stumbles upon reaching his destination. He added the note of doing practice of magical transportation and gets up. The port key had taken him just outside of property. From here he could see the small alleyway that would go to main gate of property. This was also a feature added by Nagnok and his team. They had shifted the actual main gate of property by 100 feet and had kept the small access road to it. This helped them to hide the main entrance. Also the access road was surrounded by dense forest of pine trees and could be used for adding extra defense. Harry was impressed with the forest surrounding the alleyway, but assumed that it must have grown in the time while Manor was destroyed. So after cautiously looking around to check that no one was following him, Harry starts his journey towards actual Manor.

However impressive the structure look like on paper, even if you yourself have designed it, it pales in comparison with the actual structure. Harry learned this lesson when he saw the huge dragon guarding the main entrance of property. Once Harry put some blood drops on the keystone provided by Ragnok, he was recognized as owner of the property. With the use of different crystals and goblin work, the dragon was looking like real beast. If he doesn't knew better then he would have cowered back as dragon looked likely to start the streaming fire any moment. After admiring the hugely impressive structure for solid 15 minutes, Harry continues his journey inwards.

Once he crossed the main gates, he was again surprised as he could clearly see the head of thunderbird as intended. Due to the tilted position of birds' neck its beak was covering the exact path he was walking on. Wondering about the accuracy and impressive construction of goblins for nth time that day, he continued his journey towards house. Here and there he could see different trees that he did not recognize. He also noticed that the access road was magically enhanced and was completely covered by side trees. Once again wondering about what magic could do, he turned the last corner and then for the first time saw his future home.

Whatever he had assumed the Manor would look like while designing it, he definitely did not recognized the impressive structure in front him. Completely build using white marble, the Manor was displaying its wealth and power. The goblins had also added an impressive charm due to which the Manor was glowing in a bluish golden color. He amusedly recognized the color of thunderbird on the Manor. The wings of house were in perfect shape so was the glass roof. Sighing contently he looks at the front garden and again was pleasantly surprised. Goblins had outdone themselves he thought. The garden was in perfect condition and had many varieties of flower plants, some of which were already blossomed.

When he reached the front doors, the Potter Griffin guarding it welcomed him by giving a fierce cry. Smiling happily, Harry entered the house and took a quick trip inside it. The inside of house was even more impressive that the outside structure. Each wing was constructed using different colored marble which mixed well with each other. On the top floor they all culminated to partition the art display room. This was done very nicely and he could see the effect it was having on the room. It was as if the room was constantly giving different color vibrations to its surrounding. Adding to such amazing effects was the phoenix shaped fountain and glass thunderbird on top of it. He loved every bit of this room and was absolutely sure that every visitor would also love this.

For every room goblins had added something impressive while constructing. For each bedroom, they had added huge windows which were helping in having excellent light and ventilation conditions inside house. He had added the windows to these rooms while designing, but with the use of different color glass and few crystals, the goblins had enhanced the light effects. He was sure that the crystals inside glass were capable of storing some magical energy. This was also helpful for extra protection, he thought.

For kitchen, goblins had added full set of utensils required. These were made up of gold and silver. The goblin work involved here was on display in its full glory. The small and delicate designs present on them were one of kind and he was sure that this was a unique in wizarding world. He noted to thank lord Ragnok for such a gift. He also wanted to make sure that the ownership of these was with Potters and not with goblins. For library goblins had added book cases similar to his library inside trunk. However they had added a warding stone for each rack which enabled him to secure books inside rack as well. This was very important addition from security point of view, he thought. He added a mental note to design the warding schemas for these racks. The security room attached to library was well concealed and very hard to spot. It was made up of dark grey marble walls which contained lot of crystals to store magical energy and wards. The door of this room was guarded by twin snakes as he had seen in Chamber of Secrets. Finally in the main sitting room, goblins had installed an eternal fire which would always be firing. They had used the light red marble for wall, while floor was designed using white marble.

When after 2 hours he was finally done, he thought about all the Galleons he had spent on building this Manor as money well spent. It was perfect and had a homely feel to it. Only one other place had given him such feel and that was Hogwarts. However, the peace and happiness that filled his mind in his Manor was very new feeling for him. Looking at his watch, he realized that he must reach Private drive soon or would be late for his meeting. Restraining himself from taking the long walk along the river he sets upon adding few final wards on the house. He wanted to add blood wards and fidelius on the house. Quickly finishing the casting of wards, he once again sealed the house and went back to Private Drive.

-Oo-

When he reached number 4, Private Drive it was late evening and his meeting time was fast approaching. He took out the invisibility cloak from the bag and then goes for walking around Magnolia Crescent. Once he reached his destination, he hides the backpack in the bushes around the perimeter of park. Then he casts his illusion sitting at the bench. Once satisfied with his work, he then converts himself in owl form and places himself on a tree nearby the entrance of park. This was a spot he had selected while doing the scouting of area. Once settled in his new position he started his waiting ritual and awaits the arrival of his guests.

As he expected, Prof. Dumbledore came first. He appears directly in front of gates of Magnolia Crescent. This was good news for Harry. He had mentioned in his letter to Prof. Dumbledore about meeting here but was not sure if headmaster would listen to his plea or not. As he was here, Harry had to clean his mind and start the second phase of his mission. He waited silently as Dumbledore checked for other presence and then silently took out a lighter from which he put off all close by lights. Harry was impressed with the display of magic involved in that device. But if headmaster wanted to create the effect of complete darkness, it was for naught. In his owl form, the darkness enhanced the eye vision of Harry and when Dumbledore started to move towards his unmoved illusion cautiously, he casted a powerful body binding curse at him followed by disarming spell quickly. Taken by surprise, Prof. Dumbledore could not block the two spells as he was busy looking and checking at the illusion of Harry. Once headmaster was out of action, Harry – still in owl form – lifts him and places him on the bench. Then he puts the invisibility cloak on the figure of Dumbledore and waits for his remaining two companions.

Soon after this, Remus enters the park with a large black dog with him. Both the werewolf and black dog smelled the air as they recognized that something was off. However before either could react, they were placed under body bind curse. This was again followed by a disarming spell. Once he was satisfied with his work, Harry places Remus and Sirius near Dumbledore and then removes the cloak from Prof. Dumbledore. Finally he takes a flight and gets down in front of them. Shifting back to his human form, he could see the surprised in all three eyes.

Looking directly at Remus and Sirius, he told them that he would ask a question and then will remove the spell partially so they could answer. Finding the acceptance in their eyes, he asked his question, "How did you recognize me when we met for the first time in the Hogwarts express?"

After partially lifting the curse, he nods at Remus who answers, "Well, I told you that I recognized you by your eyes and not by your scar. You have your mothers' eyes."

Satisfied with his answer, Harry asked if he had checked on the Padfoot. When Remus replied the affirmative answer, Harry turned his attention to Prof. Dumbledore. In instructed him I similar manner and then asked his question, "What advice did you gave me the night Hagrid was arrested by Ministry of Magic?"

After partial lifting of curse on headmaster Harry waited, for Prof. Dumbledore to answer who happily replied "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Once again accepting the answer, Harry told his three companions that he was going to take them to another safe location where they all could discuss things. Then he retries his backpack, wands of Dumbledore and Remus and his invisibility cloak. He took out a port-key to Potter Manor and then collects the three wizards while activating the port key. Once they reached their destination, Harry removes the curses on all three of them. Then he writes down the location of Potter Manor on a page and gave it to three visitors. Then he started his walk towards the gate.

Soon all three wizards join him for the walk with Sirius having changed back to his human form. When they reach the front gates, Harry once again appreciated the goblin work. The dragon was looking even more dangerous and alive in the night. Quickly opening the gates, they all silently crossed the gates and reached the front doors in no time. From the looks in eyes of Remus and Sirius, Harry could tell that they have lots of questions but were keeping silent for now. Once again admiring the beauty of Manor in the night, Harry took all of them in main sitting room and indicates them to sit on the sofas available. Then he conjured a very plush chair for himself and sat down.

-Oo-

Once everyone was settled Harry starts the conversation "I have quite a few questions for all three of you. I also know that you have as many questions for me. But I will not answer any of them if you do not answer my questions. If you do not want to be part of this conversation then you are free to go. You will receive your wand once you cross the front doors of this house. However if you all could answer my questions honestly then I would like to share lot of information with you. How important and sensitive this information is I cannot stress enough. You must forgive me for treating you the way I did, but I needed to be absolutely sure about it. I am sorry for the method I used but not for the reason."

Checking the response of his audience, Harry continued, "My first question is to you Prof. Dumbledore. Why did you put me with my Aunt and did you know about the abuse I received from my relatives?"

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment. He was thinking about his situation. Harry had shown them all his capability, his understanding of higher magical abilities and was freely using it – meaning he had found a way to remove the trace given by Ministry. He was also well aware that if Harry did not receive the truth, then he would know it and their relationship would be damaged. One look at his physical condition told Albus that Harry had gone through some treatment to correct the abuse. It also seemed to Albus that magical blocks placed on Harry were no longer there. How he managed all that in such a small amount of time, Albus had no idea but had few theories. But one thing was clear. Albus needed Harry and to make sure that this equation remains in that state, he must tell the truth to his audience.

Sighing in defeat, he answered the question, "When I asked Hagrid to bring you, I was looking at many magical families who could take care of you. But when I went to meet your aunt to inform her about your mother's death, I encountered the different kind of protection placed on the house. It was banned in England for long time but the blood wards tied to your mother's blood were placed on that place. It was the best protection one could offer you and hence when Hagrid brought you to private drive that night, I placed the similar wards on you. But you being the only magical person there the wards were transferred to your blood. You must go back to Private Drive till you come off age so you could charge the wards. This was the best protection available for you even now and I do not know how Lily managed to placed them, but it would have been impossible for anyone else to do on Dursley family house. As for the abuse you received at the hands of your relative, Poppy had in fact informed me back in your first year about it, but I chose not to act on it as I had my reasons."

"Was the reason of me being Horcrux Professor?" Harry asked.

Now Dumbledore was truly frightened. "How did Harry become aware of that term?" he thought absentmindedly. Hogwarts contained no books on that kind of magic. Albus also noticed that Harry was well aware of presence of blood wards on private drive and was merely curious about them. Again hanging with the thin thread of truth, he answered "Yes and no. Yes because, when I saw you first time after attack by Voldemort, I sensed a dark presence in you. To make sure that the foul presence does not consume you permanently, I placed certain blocks on your magical abilities. This was the best I could do at the time. I did not know about Horcrux then but had guessed that Tom Riddle might have used it. Also I had merely added the blocks on you as there were few already placed on you. When at the end of first year I observed you along with Poppy, I was happy that my blocks had worked as the dark presence was put on hold. However the blocks were so closely knitted by then that trying to remove even one of them would have triggered them. This might have caused your death. So I vetoed the idea of Poppy to correct your growth."

"It's alright Professor, I am no more a Horcrux and all the blocks placed on me were accidently removed. However I have another question for you. Did you agree on my behalf to my aunt a monthly allowance to keep me?" Harry asked.

The revelations this discussion were having on two other occupants were telling and both Sirius and Remus looked angry, confused and relieved at the same time. Dumbledore however was more relieved about the fact that Harry was no longer a Horcrux. Harry's new question also indicated about new direction and he was sure that goblins were somehow involved in this. This was new experience for Dumbledore but he needed Harry on his side. So he continued, "After 2 years of keeping you, Vernon was ready to through you out. The best magical protections available to you in outside world would prove futile and hence I decided to use my authority as your magical guardian to allow them access to small amount of money per month so they would keep you. I must confess that at that time my priority was to keep you alive."

"One last question to you then Professor, do you know anything about this contract?" Harry asked while handing over the fake marriage contract to Dumbledore.

After looking at it thoroughly and flinching at his signature, Dumbledore told him his negative response. For Albus Dumbledore the document in his hand was a major shock as he never expected something like this in all his life. In his opinion, the marriage contracts should have been banned as they don't allow for love to prosper. Although he conceded the point that once you are in relationship, love eventually may happen between you and your spouse, but still this was far-fetched possibility and happened very rarely for his liking. Hence it was his belief that wizarding world should ban this particular tradition. Looking at the forge copy of marriage contract between Harry and Ginny Weasley, he was very sad as it looked like Molly and Arthur were involved in this. This was a bad news as they were always very staunch supporter of light and Dumbledore.

While Dumbledore thinking about the issue Harry had escalated, he himself on the other hand was much relived. He had feared that somehow the headmaster was involved but was glad to know that it was not the fact. Turning his attention on Remus, he asked the next question to werewolf, "Why did you not contact me before Remus? Surely you could have done that much right?"

Remus flinching slightly at the implied accusation collects himself before answering, "You are right in a way Harry. I could have contacted you earlier. I should have contacted you before this. But what you will also have to understand is situation from my point of view. On that Halloween of 81, I lost everything. My best friend and his wife were dead, most probably sold by another best friend. The last of our group had gone after Sirius and was supposedly brutally murdered by him. I had lost all my friends and my driving force with them. I went into depression mode and could barely manage the survival. When Dumbledore came back to my life with the offer to teach you I initially refused it, I was so depressed even then. But when he told me that it may help save you from some other threat, I could not deny that. I owed Lily and James so much of my life that last thing I should do was to help keep their child safe so their sacrifice is not wasted. Other than that I have no other explanation. If you are angry with me, then I can probably understand it but I would like to be in your life from here onwards even if I had to risk my own life in the process."

Harry's acceptance of his answer without questioning surprised Remus, but he was not complaining. But before he could intervene Harry continued, "You know Padfoot, this all started because of you. You should have stayed there to protect me. Anyway I forgive you all for all things you had done and not done with me. But this was not the real reason I wanted to talk to you. I have a story to share with you."

He then got up and hugged both Sirius and Remus very tightly. When everybody was settled back, there were certainly moist eyes among the group. Harry then started his story, "When I got back to Private Drive for holidays, I used your name to get some concession from the everyday work, Sirius. But then I quickly realized that I had absolutely no idea about my family. Hence when uncle Vernon decided to visit Aunt Marge I asked him to drop me in London so I could visit Diagon Ally. There as usual my first stop was Gringotts. But here I got the biggest surprised of my life and we are lucky that I went there. There I met the Potter account manager Sharpclaw and he told me about my inheritance. So after performing a blood ritual to confirm my identity, I struck up a deal with Goblins."

Here he put up a hand to stop questions from others asking to ask the questions later. He continued, "According to deal, I had to become a goblin friend and accept the title of Lord Potter before we agreed to divide my money in three parts. One part would be exclusively managed by goblins and any profit generated on it would be kept by goblins. Similarly one part would be under my control. The last part would be kept as it is and goblins can use it in accordance with standard policy used. Further as a part of the deal, I received all the books present in my vault. While accepting the lordship I had a chance to talk with our family totems. Oh, by the way now I am Lord Potter and heir to House of Black. The family totems informed me about the dark presence residing inside me. So when goblins offered to cure it, I accepted the offer without any hesitation."

Here he paused again. He could see the worry present in the eyes of his listeners. All three of them were worried about where this story would go. Deciding to ignore their concerns for the moment, he continued, "The preliminary tests showed that I had number of magical blocks and I was a Horcrux." Here he could see the danger signs in faces of both Sirius and Remus. He could also see the worry clearly written in Dumbledore's face. Then he told them that not to worry and just let him finish his tale.

Once again he continued, "The goblins attempted to use an old ritual used by Egyptian Magicians in ancient time. As we know that the Horcrux were developed by them, they also created a method to safely transport it to other object. The goblins tried to use this option and wanted to transfer the piece of soul present in my body to some other goblin made object. However, before they could complete it, one of the blocks placed on me got hit. This triggered a chain reaction and my magic responded wildly."

Taking in the horrified look on others faces he quickly continued, "then I met someone who offered me to keep the memories of soul which I accepted immediately as the soul was from Voldemort. When I was back in my time, almost 100 days were passed since the incident. However we were in time bubble for the treatment and within next couple of days I could leave the time bubble. After that I struck up another deal with goblins through which I acquired a time bubble trunk which I was using for 12 years that is 6 days in outside time."

Harry then explained his time inside time bubble to his now astonished audience. He told them about his study schedule, his findings about various aspects of magic and other general things. He also showed them his 4 animagus forms and his ability to cast silently and casting from his animal form. He also explained the design of Potter Manor where they were sitting and about other structure called as Quidditch Farm. He answered most of the questions about his study though told them very politely hold back any questions about Voldemort for later.

Once he was sure that the only thing remaining for discussion was that related to Voldemort, he decided to proceed cautiously. First he reassured all of them that he is no more a Horcrux and that he is well aware of places and objects Voldemort had used to create remaining Horcrux. After hearing this Dumbledore was ready to take him to all places and destroy the Horcrux immediately but Harry told him that this was not the biggest discovery he had had from Voldemort's memories.

When Dumbledore settled back, he returned their wands before drawing his own. Then with a small flick, he conjured another chair. Then using same flick but now speaking loudly he cast a mass stunner towards others occupants of room. This time everybody was prepared for the stunner and they all avoided being hit by it. But before they could raise any question, explained his actions saying, "As you could clearly see, I used two different spells while performing same wand movement. One thing about Voldemort that we must understand is that he was supremely brilliant. He created many new spells to torture his enemies and for many other uses. He had pushed the limits of magic to unknown. The biggest discovery I made was that he created another spell to have similar effect as that of Killing curse."

Then he started explaining the three of them about the spell Voldemort had used on his parents and many other wizards. All three of them were excited about the prospect of Lily and James being alive but the mood quickly sobered when they actually understood the mechanism used by Voldemort. All three of them horrified about this prospect and when Harry finally explained about his dream of Voldemort and Peter, they were left in no doubt that Voldemort was indeed planning on his resurrection.

Looking at his watch, Harry realized it was almost morning of next day. So they all decided to continue their discussion after sleep. Thus Harry invites all of them stay in the Manor and they all retired soon after. Everybody present in the house was lost to his own thought and difficulty of the situation they all were facing. Harry decided to keep all his troubles aside as he had 3 more allies with him now than the previous day and was sure that with the help of Dumbledore, they would be able to solve all problems in given time frame. For Sirius and Remus, they were determined lot to help Harry and his parents. Also it was a chance for them to correct their mistakes of past. However it was Dumbledore who was most troubled among the lot. He could easily see Tom doing something like this. And if what Harry had already told them was true then fighting Voldemort look lot more frightening. The only plus of the day for him was the news of removal of Horcrux from Harry. Thinking about this, he went to Morpheus realm keeping his worries aside.


End file.
